The Min­istry of Health is urg­ing the pop­u­la­tion to re­frain from eat­ing Gi­ant African Snails, warn­ing of se­ri­ous health com­pli­ca­tions that could re­sult in­clud­ing menin­gi­tis, which can be fa­tal in chil­dren.

The Min­istry is­sued the warn­ing in re­sponse to an ar­ti­cle in a dai­ly news­pa­per which re­port­ed that the snails were be­ing con­sumed and be­com­ing a del­i­ca­cy.

“The Gi­ant African Snail is known to be a ma­jor reser­voir host for the rat lung­worm (An­giostrongy­lus can­to­nen­sis), which may cause menin­gi­tis—in­flam­ma­tion of the mem­brane sur­round­ing the brain and spinal cord,” the Health Min­istry’s bul­letin said.

It not­ed that hu­mans may be­come in­fect­ed by in­gest­ing raw or in­ad­e­quate­ly cooked snails.

“In­fec­tions in chil­dren tend to be of greater sever­i­ty and are of­ten fa­tal,” the Min­istry stat­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry, these snails al­so can be reser­voirs for bac­te­ria such as Sal­mo­nel­la, which can be the cause of food poi­son­ing.  It said im­prop­er han­dling or in­ad­e­quate cook­ing can lead to bac­te­r­i­al con­t­a­m­i­na­tion.

“Some Gi­ant African Snails, be­cause of their feed­ing habits, might feed on plants or chem­i­cals that could leave tox­ic residues in their bod­ies, po­ten­tial­ly mak­ing them harm­ful if con­sumed. These tox­ins are not re­moved by any prepa­ra­tion or cook­ing,” the Min­istry ex­plained, stress­ing that they should not be eat­en.

It al­so strong­ly ad­vised those who col­lect snails as part of an in­te­grat­ed pest man­age­ment pro­gram to do so “with ex­treme cau­tion”, and in ac­cor­dance with guide­lines out­lined by the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries.