-Caveat Lector- Cassava-Dependent Africans Warned of Konzo Disease Africa News Service 14-APR-99 DAKAR, Senegal (PANA, 04/14/99) - A ranking Nigerian-born toxilogical researcher, Dr John Tor-Agbidye, Wednesday cautioned Africans in cassava-dependent zones that they faced the danger of developing spastic paraparesis or Konzo, arising from high levels of cynide. The disease, which mainly occurs in areas of low protein intake, attacks the right and left side of the brain and later causes impairment of the legs. In an interview with PANA, Tor-Agbidye said that epidemic levels of the disease had already been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Tanzania, where it had affected between 3 percent and 10 percent of the population in some areas. He was one of the co-presenters at a symposium on nutritional neurotoxity at the 4th international congress of the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa, which entered its third day in the Senegalese capital Wednesday. The scientist said that in malnourished individuals, the disease is sparked by lack of sulfur amino acids which help to detoxicate the body of cynate, a by-product of cynide. According to Tor-Agbidye, who works at the National Center for Toxilogical Reserach in Oregon, US, konzo strikes people who feed on cassava flour made from the bitter cassava. He said cassava growers preferred the bitter cassava because of its higher yield and resistance to drought and pests. "The problem is that it contains high levels of cynides to the tune of between 50 and 200 milligrammes per kilo," he noted. Tor-Agbidye said that Tropical Ataxic Aeuropathy, a chronic type of the disease, had hit school children in eastern Nigeria, who were fed on cassava during the 1967-1970 civil war. But the disease was less severe because the children were eating other protein containing foods, he added. Tor-Agbidye advised people in cassava consuming areas to "adhere to the traditional methods of processing cassava, includig fermentation for three days." Governments also need to encourage people to grow other legumes which can help in detoxicating cynate within the body. The scientist conceded, however, that it was difficult for people in food deficit areas to wait for the cassava to ferment before it is turned into flour. This was also impossible in times of conflict, as is the case with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Meanwhile, another scientist, Dr Peter Spenser, said that unusually high consumption of the grass pea, scientifically known as "Lathyrus sativus", was responsible for a disease called "lathyrism", a self-limiting degerative disorder of the central motor pathway. Cases of lathyris, usually follow periods of extreme enviromental difficulty, such as floods or drought or disrupted conditions such as war or famine. Spencer said that lathyrism has affected humans and animals on at least four continents, "although one needs to go deep in the countryside to realise its gravity." "Today, human cases are present in Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea), on the Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, India and Nepal), in northwestern China and in parts of Europe (Spain)," he told PANA. He noted that these peas, of which there are over 500 species, also exist in Morocco, but "they usually don't cause harm where there is no excessive consumption." According to him, lathyrism has clinical similarities to Konzo. "Conceivably, the two nutritional neurotoxic disorders might share a a common pathogenesis, namely pertubaryiob of the AMPA-mediated neurotransmission resulting in neuronal over excitation and degeneration," he said. By Peter Masebu, PANA Staff Correspondent ================================= Robert F. Tatman [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Remove "nospam" from the address to reply. 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