Millions of East Africans consume unsafe amounts of the carcinogenic fungus, aflatoxin, daily through their food.

Aflatoxin poisoning in East Africa has become an epidemic, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas, according to the USAID-Danya International report.

The extent of aflatoxin poisoning in East Africa is only now coming to light, and experts say that in addition to being a public health threat, it is damaging the region’s trade and agriculture.

The solution lies in a multi-pronged strategy that brings together experts from the health, agriculture, trade and industry sectors.

Aflatoxin is a toxin produced by the fungus apergillus flavus. This fungus, as well as the toxins it produces, are commonly found in soil and on plant matter, including grains or cereals, peanuts, seeds, and legumes stored for food.

Aflatoxin contamination is not adequately and appropriately controlled or regulated in east Africa as most food is produced and consumed locally with zero or limited testing by regulatory authorities. As a result, millions of people living in the East Africa eat unsafe levels.

Aflatoxicosis – the poisoning that results from ingesting aflatoxins – leads to poor health in humans and reduced productivity in livestock, says East African Community official Timothy Wesonga. Acute poisoning in humans, he said, manifests itself in depression, anorexia, jaundice, hemorrhages, edema of the lower extremities, abdominal pain and vomiting. Adults usually have a high tolerance to aflatoxin. It is usually the children who die in reported acute poisonings.

An alarming 40 percent of liver-cancer cases in Africa can be attributed to aflatoxin poisoning, said Wesonga.

In addition, exposure to aflatoxin may also compound pre-existing health concerns. Individuals infected with the hepatitis B virus who have been exposed to aflatoxin have 30 times the risk of getting liver cancer than people who are hepatitis B-negative, according to a recently released document produced jointly by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Danya International.

The HIV virus increases the toxic effect of aflatoxin by decreasing levels of anti-oxidant nutrients that help detoxify aflatoxin in the body.

The USAID-Danya International report says that rising regulatory standards and lower limits for aflatoxin contamination around the world have had an enormous impact on the ability of developing countries in Africa to export goods.

The report, “Aflatoxin: A synthesis of the research in health, agriculture and trade,” says that the primary barrier to trade is the strict aflatoxin limits set by Africa’s key trade partner, the European Union. Estimates put Africa’s losses due to these stringent limits at between $400 million and $450 million annually.

These realities are now forcing policymakers to consider various measures, including setting up a manufacturing plant in East Africa for the production of Aflasafe – a biocontrol method involving the use of non-aflatoxin-producing (or atoxigenic) strains of fungi to outcompete their aflatoxin-producing cousins.

This technology is widely used on farms in the U.S. In Africa, however, only Nigeria has a plant that produces Aflasafe. The commercial production of Aflasafe in Nigeria resulted in an 80-percent reduction in aflatoxin levels. Treatment using this method costs $18.75 per hectare (about 2.5 acres.)

The fact that the five member states of the East African Community– population 140 million — are now one common market means that such a plant will have at its disposal the whole agricultural sector of these countries, whose populations are largely rural agrarian communities.

According to East African Farmers Federation CEO Stephen Muchiri, aflatoxin poisoning can affect up to 100 percent of the harvest in some parts of East Africa, especially Eastern Kenya. Tanzania is also badly affected with aflatoxin contaminating up to 30-40-percent of harvests.

The situation is so severe that in the Mutomo area of Kenya’s Kitui County, only 50 percent of produce was safe even after farms were treated. In other areas, however, the contamination levels were brought down significantly, with 60 percent of treated farms having safe produce. Those not treated were highly contaminated, with more than 90 percent of the produce affected.

International guidelines on aflatoxin are provided by the Codex Alimentarius Commission established by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health Organization. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the European Union, Canada, and many African and Asian countries have established specific regulations on acceptable levels of aflatoxin in human food and animal feed.

The U.S. has adopted 20 parts per billion as the maximum acceptable level for aflatoxin and half a part per billion for milk. The EU has some of the strictest standards for mycotoxins, including aflatoxin, in the world. It has a limit of four parts per billion of total aflatoxin strains allowed in cereals and peanuts; of that, no more than two parts per billion may be composed of aflatoxin.

The danger of aflatoxin to health and economies is leading to a flurry of activity across Africa as policymakers grapple with the problem. A two-day workshop brought together experts from agriculture, health and trade industries in Burundi in March. A similar conference was organized for Eastern and Southern Africa in Malawi in March.

About five billion people worldwide suffer from uncontrolled exposure to aflatoxin, according to Ousmane Coulibaly with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture  in Benin. The use of Aflasafe, he said, is much cheaper than other control methods such as irrigation, insecticides and post-harvest interventions.

Despite the grim facts, aflatoxins have not attracted much attention from authorities due to lack of advocacy and public awareness, said Maina Wagacha of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Kenya. And even though the fungus cannot be fully eliminated, he said, contamination can be brought down to safe levels.

As a result of these concerns and following the workshops, the East African Community has established a Regional Experts Working Group on Aflatoxins to spearhead efforts to battle the menace.