Tanzania: Food Poisoning Linked to 14 Deaths in Two Regions
Aflatoxins are toxic, carcinogenic by-products of
fungi that colonise maize and groundnuts, among other crops.
Dar
es Salaam — Results of laboratory tests conducted on blood and urine
samples of people who died or fell ill after eating food believed to
have been contaminated in Dodoma and Manyara regions have revealed
shocking levels of aflatoxins, The Citizen can report
.
The US-based Centre
for Disease Control (CDC), which carried out the tests on 19 urine and
blood samples, has also isolated the most poisonous and cancer-causing
substance known as Aflatoxin B1. Medical sources say this type of
aflatoxin damages the liver.
However, the exact
source of the contamination remains a mystery. Local researchers from
the department of Epidemiology in the Ministry of Health are now
compiling evidence gathered from the affected regions to try and
establish whether the "poison" was from animal or plant sources.
Hakuna maoni