Strange disease linked to Aflatoxin poisoning

The Minister for Health, Social Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, said 13 out of 17 samples were tested with high level of Aflatoxin poisoning than the national standards and all were maize samples.

“Among the samples contaminated with Aflatoxin 12 of them were from Chemba District and one from Kondoa District,” Ms Mwalimu told a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

The samples of cereals tested by the TFDA included maize, sorghum and millet. The mysterious disease was detected for the first time on June 13 in Chemba District where it has reportedly affected a family of nine people in Mwaikisabe Village before it spread out to surrounding areas, including Kondoa District.

“To be sure of this, my ministry will, pending the results of blood tests and stool, which we will send to the United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) on Monday, is also finalising a few things with them before sending the samples,” the minister explained.

Ms Mwalimu said the in-patients are responding well to treatment save for five who are in critical condition. The laboratory results from the CDC might take one week, according to her.

Aflatoxins are a class of toxic compounds that are produced by certain moulds found in food, which can cause liver damage and cancer. Poor preservation of food crops is the major cause of Aflatoxins.

Major symptoms of the strange disease include vomiting, diarrhoea and yellowing of eyes and other parts of the body. Other symptoms include stomachache leading to swelling of the abdomen after being filled with water.

"The patients neither experience high temperatures nor skin rashes and it affects all people, including adults and children," she explained.

Ms Mwalimu, however, dismissed circulated reports that people who contracted the disease had earlier ate cow meat that had been slaughtered with one of its limbs fractured, saying the disease was not caused by the meat because even those who didn't consume it contracted the disease.

She said the government will keep on working around the clock to contain the disease by engaging various stakeholders including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the CDC.

Seven people were reported dead last week while 21 others were quarantined at the Dodoma Regional Referral Hospital and Kondoa District Hospital after they contracted the mysterious disease.

Ms Mwalimu told journalists that initial tests at the national laboratory have as well proved that the strange disease is not Yellow Fever as laboratory technicians were still working to identify other diseases such as Rift Valley Fever (RVF).