Food distribution stepped up in two districts after contaminated grain kills 81

Kenyan authorities have stepped up food distribution in two districts where a total of 81 people died after eating maize contaminated with aflatoxin, a poison produced by fungi which grow on cereals harvested or stored under damp conditions, officials said on Wednesday. The director of medical services, Dr James Nyikal, told IRIN that 81 people, or 41 percent of the 197 cases of aflatoxin poisoning reported since the first week of May in Makueni and Kitui districts, had died. "The toxin is difficult to treat; one is likely to die even with treatment. The toxin has no antidote," said Nyikal. He said the most effective way of dealing with the problem was to destroy all the contaminated food stocks and give residents in the affected areas fresh rations to make sure they did not eat the bad grain out of desperation. Large areas of Makueni and Kitui districts in south-central Kenya, are semiarid and frequently experience food shortages caused by droughts. Maalim Ibrahim, the under secretary in charge relief operations in the president's office, said the government was distributing maize, beans and vegetable oil to people in the affected areas. "Resources are being mobilised," he told IRIN. Military lorries were being used to help with food distribution, according to Bonaventure Wendo, the head of the National Disaster Operations Centre. According to the Kenyan health ministry, poisoning occurred after consumption of the contaminated food on which the fungi had grown because the grain had either been harvested before it was dry or poorly stored or transported. Exposure to large amounts of aflatoxin over a short period caused acute liver damage and subsequent death, while the ingestion of small amounts over a longer period could cause cancer of the liver, the ministry statement added. Symptoms of aflatoxin poisoning include yellow eyes, vomiting, abdominal and leg swelling, general weakness, drowsiness, and coma leading to death.