Fatal Lychee Toxins Kill 69 Children In India

“The heat wave has been too intense, and it has gone on for too long,” said Sanjay Kumar, a senior state health official adding that according to international experts lychee has some kind of toxin that goes and deposits in the liver and get released when the temperatures go up. Therefore alongside hypoglycemia- low blood sugar- consumption of lychees (widely grown in the region) has also played a significant role in the increasing number of deaths in children.

According to reports urine samples found that two-thirds of the ill children showed evidence of exposure to toxins in lychee seeds, found in higher levels in unripe fruits. In the presence of these toxins, “glucose synthesis is severely impaired which leads to dangerously low blood sugar and brain inflammation”, as per latest studies.