Consumption of bread made from contaminated wheat delivered from Khatlon’s Hamadoni district has led to nineteen heliotrope poisoning cases in two villages of the Ishkashim district in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO); an 11-year-old teen died.
Ms. Niloufar Aslamshoyeva, a spokeswoman for the GBAO governor, says five members of the Qurbonbekov family were taken to the GBAO regional hospital in Khorog on January 17.
They were reportedly diagnosed with hepatitis caused by heliotrope poisoning. An 11-yerar teen from the Qurbonbekov family died on January 31.
“Currently, nineteen residents of the Ishkashim district, including eight children, are undergoing medical treatment at the regional hospital in Khorog. One of children is in serious health condition,” Aslamshoyeva said.
A special commission comprising medical workers has been sent to the Ishkashim district. The commission has reportedly established that people got poisoned after consuming bread made from contaminated wheat.
On February 9, a group of specialists from Dushanbe arrived in the region to treat residents of the Ishkashim district who got poisoned.
An entrepreneur from the Ishkashim district, Nasriddin Sabzaliyev, reportedly delivered five tons of wheat from Khatlon’s Hamadoni district in August last year. The wheat reportedly tested positive to be contaminated with heliotrope.
The seeds and roots of Heliotropium lasocarpium, contain a pyrrolizidine alkaloid which causes toxic liver injury and veno-occlusive disease (VOD), characterized by an occlusive lesion of the centrolobular veins of the liver, when consumed by humans.
Recall, a delay in the wheat harvest in the Farkhor district of the Khatlon province in 1992 led to contamination of the harvested grain with seeds of the poisonous weed, Heliotropium lasiocarpum. Consumption of bread made from the contaminated wheat resulted in an outbreak of poisoning; by Mar. 1993, 3906 cases of liver toxicity had been recorded.
