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Agence France-Presse

At least 31 children have died in northern India in the last 10 days from a deadly brain disease believed to be linked to a toxic substance found in lychee fruit, health officials said Wednesday.
The deaths were reported from two hospitals in Bihar state’s Muzaffarpur district, famed for it lush lychee orchards, officials said.
The children all showed symptoms of acute encephalitis syndrome, senior health official Ashok Kumar Singh said, adding most had suffered a sudden loss of glucose in their blood.
“The health department has already issued an advisory for people to take care of their children during the hot summer when day temperature is above 40 degreed Celsius (104 Fahrenheit),” Singh said.
Water shortages and heatstroke warnings issued as temperatures pass 50 Celsius in India
At least 40 other children complaining of similar symptoms were being treated at intensive care units.
“We are trying our best to save them,” said S.P. Singh, the chief medical officer of Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital.
The outbreaks of the disease have happened annually during summer months in Muzaffarpur and neighbouring districts since 1995, typically coinciding with the lychee season.
Known locally as Chamki Bukhar, the disease claimed a record 150 lives in 2014.
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In 2015, US researchers said the brain disease could be linked to a toxic substance found in the fruit.
They also said more study was needed to uncover the cause of the illness, which leads to seizures, altered mental state and death in more than a third of cases.
Outbreaks of neurological illness have also been observed in lychee-growing regions of Bangladesh and Vietnam.


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Encephalitis from lychees kills 31 children in India, say health officials

A lychee. Photo: Alamy

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(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 31, 2019, an Indian youth dives into the Ana Sagar lake during a hot day in Ajmer, in the Indian state of Rjasthan. - Temperatures pushed towards 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) across much of India on June 1 as an unrelenting heatwave triggered warnings of water shortages and heat stroke. (Photo by Shaukat Ahmed / AFP)

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In 2015, researchers in the United States said the brain disease could be linked to a toxic substance found in the fruit
Yet the exact cause of the illness, which leads to seizures, altered mental state and death in more than a third of cases, is still unknown


At least 40 other children complaining of similar symptoms were being treated at intensive care units. In 2014, the disease claimed a record 150 lives.


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