A doctor in Thailand whose parents died from liver cancer after eating a much-loved raw fish dish is travelling the country’s rural north-east to warn people off the recipe.

Koi pla, a cheap plate of raw fish ground with spices and lime, is eaten by millions of Thais, especially in one of the nation’s poorest provinces, Isaan. But the meal often contains parasites that cause a type of liver cancer believed to be killing up to 20,000 Thais per year. Isaan has the highest reported instance of cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer, in the world. The aggressive cancer is often caused by a parasitic flatworm – or liver fluke – native to fresh water fish in the Mekong region. “It’s a very big health burden around here,” Narong Khuntikeo, who went on to become a liver surgeon after he lost his parents, told Agence France-Presse. “But nobody knows about this because they die quietly, like leaves falling from a tree.” Without surgery, the disease has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers, according to cholangiocarcinoma charities. Narong has brought together scientists, doctors and anthropologists in his fight against the “silent killer”.(theguardian)…[+]