Outbreak of beriberi in the state of Maranhão, Brazil: revisiting the mycotoxin aetiologic hypothesis.

Abstract

Beriberi is caused by thiamine deficiency. Early 20th century epidemics in Japan were attributed to rice contaminated by citreoviridin mycotoxin. Our investigation of an outbreak of beriberi in Brazil showed an association of beriberi with the consumption of poor quality subsistence farming rice, although, unlike other investigators of this outbreak, we did not identify citreoviridin producing fungi in the implicated rice.

• Authors: Helena Cristina Alves Vieira Lima, Eucilene Alves Santana Porto, José Ricardo Pio Marins, Rejane Maria Alves, Rosângela Rosa Machado, Karla Neves Laranjeira Braga, Francisca Bernardes de Paiva, Greice Madeleine Ikeda Carmo, Ana Carolina Faria Silva e Santelli, Jeremy Sobel
• Journal: Tropical doctor (Trop Doct) Vol. 40 Issue 2 Pg. 95-7 (Apr 2010) ISSN: 1758-1133 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 20305104 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Mycotoxins
• Thiamine

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Beriberi (blood, drug therapy, epidemiology)
• Brazil (epidemiology)
• Case-Control Studies
• Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
• Disease Outbreaks
• Female
• Food Contamination (analysis)
• Food Microbiology
• Fungi (isolation & purification)
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Mycotoxins (analysis)
• Oryza (microbiology)
• Risk Factors
• Socioeconomic Factors
• Thiamine (blood, therapeutic use)
• Young Adult