The problem of aflatoxic human disease in parts of India-epidemiological and ecological aspects.

An outbreak of a disease characterised by jaundice, rapidly developing ascites and portal hypertension associated with 20 p. 100 mortality rate was investigated in 1974. Analysis of food samples revealed that the disease outbreak was due to the consumption of maize (corn) heavily infested with the fungus Aspergillus flavus. Unseasonal rains prior to harvest, chronic drought conditions, poor storage facilities and ignorance of dangers of consuming fungal contaminated food seem to have caused the outbreak. The level of aflatoxin in food samples consumed during the outbreak was ranging between 2.5 and 15.6 microgram/g. Anywhere between 2 and 6 mg of aflatoxin seems to have been consumed daily by the affected people for many weeks. In contrast, during 1975, analysis of corn samples from the same areas revealed very low levels of aflatoxin, viz., less than 0.1 microgram/g. This was in line with the absence of major outbreak in 1975.