In Pemba, in the Zanzibar archipelago, sea turtle meat, a local food widely preferred by tourists, has caused deaths.
Eight children and one adult died and 78 people were hospitalized due to turtle meat, which periodically causes a type of food poisoning called chelonitoxication.
Mkoani district health director Dr. Haji Bakari said the adult who died on Friday was the mother of one of the children who died earlier.Bakari said the patient had eaten the turtle meat on Tuesday.
Bakari told the Associated Press that laboratory tests confirmed that all patients had eaten sea turtle meat.
7 PEOPLE HAD PREVIOUSLY DIED
Zanzibari authorities sent a crisis control team to the region and called for no consumption of sea turtles.
In 2021, seven people, including a 3-year-old child, died from sea turtle poisoning.
