Doctor raises sago poison fears

THE sago-eating population of this country has been warned about a toxin that is present in sago flour that takes 15- 20 minutes to make a person sick if consumed.
Divine Word University’s health faculty lecturer Dr Miila Gena said toxin in sago that made some Maprik people sick or killed them in 1974 was not seriously looked at until she managed to do a research on it.
Gena said she was working at OK Tedi in 2007 and she received a report of some people getting sick after eating sago and taken to hospital.
She said of two women who ate sago, one who ate a quarter of a sago pancake recovered and the other, who ate three-quarters, died. ene said her search showed that a certain toxin found in sago, if not properly preserved, killed red blood cells and that cause people to have difficulties breathing.
They can die if they not treated quickly. “The germs are producing toxin and contaminated the sago flour and in my thesis I have confirmed that this disease is truly related to eating contaminated sago,” she said.
“So if you are walking around and your blood level would be around 10, 12 and 15 but when you get this disease, it will drop to 7, 6, 5 and down,” Gena said.
She said when people affected by the disease were brought to the hospital and lay unconscious, having difficulty breathing, it means they need treatment that would increase their red blood cells.
“The red blood cells are like PMVs operating in our bodies which carry oxygen and supply to all parts of body so when they are destroyed, you don’t have that PMV to transport oxygen anymore and you find yourself having difficulty breathing,” Gena said.
She said she was yet to find which organism produced that toxin in sago flours and that would be another part of her research to do.
Gena said after identifying the organism, a diagnostic test could be invented for people to test sago if they were contaminated before cooking for consumption.