Lychee the silent killer

In the city of Muzaffarpur in Uttar Pradesh with the increase in temperature several children woke up with a loud cry in the morning and had to rush to the hospital as they started having seizures and slipped in to deep coma.

According to scientists a mystery illness that killed over 100 children a year was caused by eating raw lychee on an empty stomach.

Most victims were poor children from India’s main lychee producing region who ate the fruit that had fallen onto the ground in orchards.

Lychee contains toxins that inhibit the body’s ability to produce glucose, which affected young children whose blood sugar levels were already low because of malnutrition.

The outbreak was caused by the ackee fruit which contained Hypoglycin, a toxin that prevents the body from making glucose.