Is China behind linking Bihar child deaths to lychee fruits? BJP MP demands probe

Even as the number of deaths of children with Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Bihar's Muzaffarpur has risen to 136, an MP of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded a probe into linking the deadly disease to consumption of lychees, while hinting at a possible Chinese role in it.

"We are told that eating lychees by children in Bihar's Muzaffarpur may be the cause of AES,” said BJP member Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

According to reports, around 40 per cent of the cultivation of the 15-day crop happens in India and the majority of the fruit is produced in Muzzafarpur.

"The government must probe if there is a conspiracy to harm the interest of Indian lychee farmers by linking death of children due to AES in Muzaffarpur to consumption of lychee," Rudy, who is from Bihar's Saran district, said.

He also suggested that China, which is the second-largest producer of the fruit after India, could be behind spreading the misinformation.

"This is a conspiracy to damage the brand name of lychee... We are eating lychees since our childhood but we did not suffer from AES," said the MP.

The AES is a serious neurological illness that causes inflammation of the brain. The real reason for the deadly disease has not been ascertained yet, with medical opinion remaining divided.

The PTI on Wednesday quoted Arun Shah, an independent child specialist, as having said that consumption of unripe lychee containing a high concentration of toxin could be behind the AES outbreak in Muzaffarpur. However, Gopal Shankar Sahni, the head of pediatrics department at Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur, attributed the outbreak to excessive heat and humidity.

According to state health department, the brain fever has afflicted more than 600 children across 16 districts of Bihar.