Teen dies after consuming watermelon in Chhattisgarh; investigation underway to determine cause

AMid reports of people falling badly after overwhelming watermelon vine, a 15-year older boy from Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa dominion, died while three other children fell ill after consuming the fruit, officials said on Monday, news agency PTI reported.The deceased has been identified as Akhilesh Dhivar (15), a resident of Podi Dalha village, while the other affected children are Shri Dhivar (4) from Avarid village, Pintu Dhivar (12) from Khatola and Hitesh Dhivar (13) from Kotgarh.The incident took place in Ghurkot village, where the children had come to their maternal uncle's house along with kin, officials added."As per preliminary information, the children consumed cut watermelon kept at the house on Sunday evening. A few hours later, Akhilesh started vomiting, had diarrhoea and breathing difficulties. Similar symptoms were later noticed in the other three children as well," said district hospital civil surgeon Dr S Kujur."As their condition deteriorated, family members rushed them to the district hospital in ambulances at different times on Monday. However, Akhilesh was declared dead on arrival. The three other children were admitted to the emergency ward here," he added.‘Possibility of contamination’, says doctorThe watermelon had reportedly been cut in the morning and consumed several hours later, raising the possibility of contamination, Dr Kujur said."Prima facie, the children may have suffered food poisoning due to consumption of contaminated watermelon. The body of the teenager has been sent for post-mortem and viscera samples have been preserved for forensic examination. Another watermelon kept at the house was sent to the food safety department for laboratory testing," Kujur said.Officials said the exact cause of death and illness would be known only after the forensic and food safety reports are received.Similar incident in MumbaiA similar incident was reported in Mumbai after a couple and their two teenage daughters fell violently ill after eating watermelon at their home in Pydhonie, and died within hours of one another.Initial investigation and speculation suggested the cause of death to be a watermelon the family had consumed the night before, following which they suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.However, a report by the state-run Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) submitted to the investigators revealed traces of zinc phosphide, a highly toxic rodenticide, had been found in samples of the viscera taken from all four deceased members of the Dokadia family.