Mystery illness in Andhra Pradesh claims one life, 476 hospitalised as efforts on to find cause

VIJAYAWADA: The mystery illness that has gripped Eluru in West Godavari district showed no signs of subsiding Monday with the number of people exhibiting symptoms of it such as nausea, seizures, and headache touching 476 - a dramatic increase of over a hundred compared to Sunday.

Of them, 332 have been discharged while 125 are undergoing treatment at the government general hospital in the town and 18 have been rushed to Vijayawada and Guntur for better treatment. One of the patients, Sridhar from Vidyanagar, who breathed his last on Sunday, was confirmed to have died due to the as yet unidentified disease.

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Among the patients are 222 women and 67 children including 26 girls. It appears to be a dynamic, evolving situation as three patients, who were discharged, were taken ill again and cases were reported from areas where the Eluru municipal corporation doesn't supply drinking water - ruling out water contamination as a probable cause. Officials also ruled out human to human transmission. It is learnt that a nurse at the Eluru hospital was among those taken ill.

As the cases spiked, the Centre sent a three-member team headed by Dr Jamshed Nayar, Associate Professor (Emergency Medicine), at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), to investigate and diagnose the unusual phenomenon.

 The team, which will reach Eluru on Tuesday, has been directed to submit a report by evening. The other team members are Avinash Deoshtawar, virologist from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, and Sanket Kulkarni, Deputy Director, PH, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

With the situation turning grim, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy paid a visit to the Eluru government hospital and interacted with the patients. Later, he held a meeting with health officials where the latter explained that results of water samples tested for the presence of heavy metals were normal. 

The cases were reported from different parts of Eluru urban and rural and Denduluru mandals. Some people, who consumed mineral water, also fell ill.

When the officials informed the Chief Minister that three patients were readmitted with the mystery illness after being discharged from hospital, he directed them to monitor the condition of all the discharged patients, besides providing them nutritious diet. Briefing the media, Health Minister Nani asserted that there was no need to panic as situation was under control.