Hyderabad: At least 264 people from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district were hospitalised overnight Saturday with complaints of fainting spells, dizziness, headache and vomiting, with doctors unable to ascertain the cause.
Admitted to government and private hospitals, most patients were below 30 years of age and about 22 per cent of them were children, District Collector Mutyala Raju Revu told ThePrint. By Sunday afternoon, about 70 patients were discharged.
“There is no concentration of cases, each family has one case and five to six people are getting affected in a colony, so there is no pattern as such. People who’ve consumed mineral water are also getting admitted with these symptoms,” Revu said.
The issue came to the district administration’s notice Saturday evening when the first few cases were admitted to a government hospital. Overnight, the number shot up to over 200 as patients with similar symptoms turned up at government and private hospitals.
No casualties have been reported and the condition of most patients is stable, Revu said. However, people with comorbidities have shown a more severe affliction, he added. Five such cases were shifted to Vijayawada.
District authorities said that samples of blood and urine were collected while CT scans of the patients were ordered to ascertain the cause. Most of the results have so far revealed nothing unusual.
The government is also running a culture test on blood to check for any foreign bodies such as bacteria and yeast. The West Godavari district administration said it would take 48 hours for the reports to come in.
To check for water contamination, samples from across 22 locations were sent for tests. According to Revu, all parameters tested normal, except for E.Coli, the result of which is expected by the end of the day.
On whether the situation could have been caused by industrial waste contamination, the collector said there is only one jute mill in the area. He added that a team from the Pollution Control Board, which was sent to examine the mill, said there were no airborne pollutants.
More experts, from the National Institute of Nutrition and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, are expected to visit the town Monday.
Eluru has 2.2 lakh residents and about 50,000 households.
All those admitted in hospitals had tested negative for Covid-19, Revu said.
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‘Similar cases were being reported for 3 days’
Cases were being reported from across the town and surrounding rural areas through the night.
“In a few cases, people had symptoms such as frothing also. We’ve had such cases from the past three days, but since people went to private hospitals, it was unknown. Yesterday, a lot of them went to government hospital, which is how the intensity of the spread was understood,” a district health administration official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Deputy chief minister and state health minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas ruled out possibilities of water contamination and said further tests would give a clearer picture.
Srinivas, who visited patients at a hospital, said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had been apprised of the situation and had taken stock. He also said that health staff were conducting door to door surveys while medical camps are being set up.
While authorities work on determining what triggered the mass sickness, the presence of arsenic or lead in items of consumption is suspected to be a possible cause, a district health administration official told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
Opposition leaders from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) criticised the government for its “gross negligence” and alleged that Eluru residents had not been receiving clean, potable water for 18 months now.
“…this is gross negligence on the part of the Jagan Reddy regime. The people had no health security and were under life threat in the Health Minister’s own constituency,” TDP’s national general secretary, Nara Lokesh said Sunday.
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A town of Andhra Pradesh in news over mystery disease in early December 2020 involving vomiting , giddiness , seizures and headache.
According to news report published on 6 December , 2020 , a mystery disease in a town of Andhra Pradesh has caused death of one person in addition to hospitalization of about 300 patients. The disease which has so far not been identified in strict medical terms , afflicts the patient with seizures , vomiting , giddiness and severe headache. In this context , it may be apt to share with readers this Vedic astrology writer’s related predictive alert for more care and appropriate strategy in , among other States , Andhra Pradesh through article :-
“ Climax of year 2020 can make appearance during 10 October to 13 November – worrisome concerns on territorial , economic and health fronts calling for more care and appropriate strategy”.
The article was published at english.nirpakhawaaz.in on 27 September , 2020. Since the mystery disease has come to light in the beginning of December , it can be reasonably assumed that the ailment may have taken shape during the period of predictive alert from 10 October to 13 November 2020. Now , readers may like to peruse the related text of the alert in the said article , which reads as follows :-
“ 3 ( d ). On health front , Covid-19 is likely to turn more furious………………………………….In addition , it seems that eyes , stomach , head etc may need better care . Dietary system may also need better control. Take such measures as improve immunity system in the body. In short , digestive system needs to be taken care of”.
If this does not come under control in days to come , there is likelihood that it could get all the more stronger during 10 January to 13 February in coming year 2021. This predictive alert has also been made by this writer on 26 November , 2020 , through another article. So , the right course seems to be to take more care and appropriate strategy with greater vigour.
Link to reach article published on 27 September 2020 :-
http://english.nirpakhawaaz.in/2020/11/04/climax-of-year-2020-can-make-appearance-during-10-october-to-13-november-worrisome-concerns-on-territorial-economic-and-health-fronts-calling-for-more-care-and-appropriate-strategy/