Scientists have uncovered the mystery of hundreds of mysterious child deaths that occur every summer in the Indian city of Muzaffarpur. The point turned out to be the lychee fruit, the ripening of the fruit of which coincides with the onset of the disease that takes away children's lives. It usually occurs in children who eat lychee on an empty stomach. The incident was reported in the Lancet.
Since 1995, there have been reports of children in Muzaffarpur becoming unexpectedly ill and suffering from seizures, usually in the morning. Often they fall into a coma, from which 40% of the sick no longer leave and die. The epidemic begins in mid-May and ends by the end of July.
A study of 400 sick children and 100 healthy children showed no traces of infection or pesticides in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid. But among sick children there were almost 10 times more of those who ate lychee in the last 24 hours before the disease. Urinalysis revealed the presence of two toxins in the body - hypoglycine and methylenecyclopropyl glycine, often found in unripe fruits. In addition, it turned out that eating lychee on an empty stomach doubled the chances of getting sick.
When children skipped meals, their blood sugar dropped. At such times, the body should receive glucose from fatty acids, but toxins from lychee blocked this process, which caused blood sugar to drop to life-threatening levels. However, if they ate dinner before eating lychee, the chance of getting sick was greatly reduced.