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BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- A British 16-year-old girl, who had developed hepatitis quickly recovered once she stopped drinking the green tea bought online in a bid to lose some weight and was given intravenous fluids and medication.
Her case is described in the latest issue of British Medical Journal Case Reports.The girl came to her doctor with nausea, joint pain and nonspecific abdominal pains. Physicians gave the teen antibiotics, thinking she had a minor infection and sent her home. But she came back to the emergency room jaundiced with worsening symptoms.
She was suffering from jaundice, causing her skin and the whites of her eyes to turn yellow.
The girl denied drinking any alcohol, and said she had not taken any over-the-counter medicines such as paracetamol, or illegal drugs. She had also not traveled abroad recently.
When doctors questioned her again, she admitted to ordering green tea over the Internet, having been told it could aid weight loss.
After doing multiple tests searching for viral causes to her illness, the teen's doctors realized she had acute hepatitis, or an inflamed liver. It could be chemicals added in the green tea, particularly used in weight loss products, that cause liver inflammation, or it may be the pesticides used on the tea trees are to blame, the doctors said.
(Agencies)
