Eight children and a woman have died after eating sea turtle meat in the Zanzibar archipelago. According to officials, 78 people had to be admitted to the hospital.
A widespread epidemic affects the Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar. According to a Sky News report, 78 people were hospitalized after eating sea turtle meat, a classic local specialty. At least 9 people lost their lives, including 8 children.
Eating sea turtle meat can cause chelanitoxism, a rare but potentially fatal food poisoning. There is no known antidote to combat addiction.
Symptoms are severe: they can range from general nausea to ulceration of the throat. Other patients experience partial paralysis or slip into a coma.
Local authorities have sent a team to Pemba Island to manage the health crisis. All of these cases could be traced back to a meal containing sea turtles, which was consumed on Tuesday 5 March.
A previous epidemic in 2021
According to Sky News, Minister Hamza Hassan Juma clearly told the population not to eat dishes made from this marine animal. And for good reason, this is the second deadly epidemic of the decade.
In November 2021, a three-year-old child and six adults died after eating this food on the island of Pemba. Three others had to be hospitalized.
As an explanatory page in Vidal explains, turtle-transmitted chelonitoxicism “may be linked to toxic algae that the turtle eats”.
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