The
scientist who investigated the mystery disease that proved fatal for
many 15-year old children in Muzaffarpur, Bihar at the instance of the
State government has raised ethics issues about the way the research has
been published by the journal
The scientist who investigated the mystery disease that proved fatal
for many 15-year old children in Muzaffarpur, Bihar at the instance of
the State government has raised ethics issues about the way the research
has been published by the journal
Lancet Global Health
on January 30.
“Not giving due credit for work done by others is
not acceptable in science,” Dr. T. Jacob John, a virologist who was
earlier attached to the Christian Medical College, (CMC) Vellore says.
“They
quote our study but don’t honestly say what we have found. If they did
that then they can’t claim originality. They have done a large
case-control study but borrowed all important information connected with
the illness from us,” he argues.
Dr. John published in 2014
evidence of a link between a fruit in Jamaica, the ackee, from the same
family as litchi, and a disease called acute encephalopathy in
Jamaicans. He showed the close clinical similarity between ackee
poisioning and the Muzaffarpur illness, where litchi consumption and
skipping the evening meal could result in very low blood glucose and
acute encephalopathy, leading to seizures and coma, and death in many
cases.
Authors refute claim
The
Lancet
authors, however, refute this. “We have acknowledged and cited all three of Dr. John and his colleagues’ papers in
Current Science
,” Dr. Padmini Srikantiah at CDC Atlanta and the corresponding author
said in an email. “There are a few key findings in our study that have
not been, to our knowledge, reported previously. First: the evidence of
the metabolites of hypoglycin A and methylenecyclopropylglycine (MCPG)
in the specimens of affected children, and the demonstrated metabolic
abnormalities that resulted due to the effects of these toxins. And,
second, a statistically significant epidemiological association between
illness and litchi consumption, as well as the modifying effect of the
absence of an evening meal.”
Dr. John’s team had in a May 2014 paper in
Current Science
pointed out that the illness was due to non-infectious encephalopathy
and not viral encephalitis as was widely suspected. That it was a form
of encephalopathy associated with low blood sugar was again emphasised
in a August 2014 paper in
Current Science
.
A December 2015
Current Science
paper reported presence of MCPG in litchi ; but not MCPG or hypoglycin A
in samples of children. But the study strongly suggested the role of
MCPG.
“Our finding provides the much needed evidence for
biological plausibility that litchi consumption by undernourished
children, especially after prolonged fasting, triggers the hypoglycaemic
encephalopathy,” early in the morning, the paper says.
Dr. Jacob John’s team said the illness was due to non-infectious encephalopathy and not viral encephalitis