What is Chelonitoxism? Multiple dead after eating sea turtle meat on Zanzibar Island 

Last week, on the remote African archipelago of Zanzibar, eight kids and one adult succumbed to chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning caused by eating sea turtle meat.

NBC reported 78 people overall fell sick during the incident, including a mother-child duo who died, as per Dr. Haji Bakari, a local medical officer for Mkoani District in Zanzibar.

Dr. Bakari later told the Associated Press that all the people who got infected with chelonitoxism had undergone lab tests, which confirmed the diagnosis. Officials launched disaster management teams to raise awareness in the wake of the food poisoning, led by Hamza Hassan Juma, as per Sky News, who urged people to stop consuming sea turtle meat.

---

Exploring the meaning of Chelonitoxism amidst the recent Zanzibar fatal incident

According to the National Library of Medicine website, chelonitoxism is a food poisoning caused by consuming marine turtle (belonging to the Chelonia class) meat. It is a rare kind of illness and can occasionally be fatal.

People in the subtropical regions, including islands around the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, are more susceptible to the illness, including the Zanzibar archipelago off the eastern coast of Africa. Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Gulf of Mannar, and New Guinea are some of the other regions that reported similar instances in the past.

Primarily, green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are associated with chelonitoxism; however, loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta gigas) and leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) can also cause food poisoning.

The chelonitoxins, that lead to the illness come from the environment but do not affect the reptiles directly. Their eggs, if they contain zoonotic infectious agents, can also lead to chelonitoxism, as per The Week. Both raw and cooked meat can cause the disease, and almost all parts of the turtles are often infected.

As per the National Institutes of Health, chelonitoxism causes gastrointestinal symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dysphagia, liver issues, and throat and mouth ulceration, among others, followed by “neurologic, hepatic, and renal toxicity.” In severe cases, it leads to muscular weakness, partial paralysis, coma, and even death.

While there is no antidote, supportive treatment can help the people affected if detected within hours of the poisoning. Breastfeeding mothers, if infected, can pass on the poison to their kids.

Sea turtle meat has been considered a local delicacy in the Philippines and Zanzibar; as a result, chelonitoxism reports have existed since 1917.

---

Other reported chelonitoxism cases

In the recent incident that happened on March 5, 2024, as per the New York Post, on Pemba Island on the Zanzibar archipelago, eight children and one adult (the mother of one of them) died in less than three days, despite the known life-threatening risks.

In November 2021, a similar incident occurred in Zanzibar (a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania), in which seven individuals, including a three-year-old succumbed.

Before that, in August 2013, the foodborne illness affected locals of Eastern Samar village in the Philippines, as per the National Library of Medicine. Out of 68 people affected and hospitalized between the ages of 2 and 80 (primarily males), four succumbed.