Central team to visit Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday to investigate mysterious disease

NEW DELHI: A central team will visit Andhra Pradesh to investigate a mysterious disease that has begun spreading in the state's Eluru city claiming one life and affecting around 350 people so far.

According to an office memorandum issued by the Union Health Ministry on Monday, the team comprising Dr Jamshed Nayar, Associate Professor (Emergency Medicine), AIIMS, Dr Avinash Desohtawar, Virologist, NIV, Pune and Dr Sanket Kulkarni, Deputy Director, PH, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will reach Eluru on Tuesday.

The team would make "an urgent visit to East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, to investigate the incident of sudden illness of people in an around Eluru, East Godavari District", it stated. "The team should reach by tomorrow morning and submit a preliminary report by evening," according to the office memorandum.

People afflicted with the mysterious disease suddenly fell unconscious after suffering from fits and nausea. It started in the One-Town area of Eluru and most of the victims were in the 20-30 age group while there were about 45 children below the age of 12 years.

Health authorities could not yet establish the cause of the disease though blood tests and CT (brain) scans were performed. Cerebral Spinal Fluid tests also turned out to be normal. Though initially it was suspected that water contamination could have been the cause of the disease, sample tests ruled that out.