Eluru mystery illness: High level committee set up

VIJAYAWADA: The State government, on Tuesday, constituted a high level committee to monitor the implementation of the recommendations made by the Multi-disciplinary Committee on the sudden convulsions of unknown origin (mystery illness) in Eluru Municipal Corporation limits, West Godavari.

The nine-member committee will be headed by the Chief Secretary with the Health Commissioner acting as a member convenor. Special Chief Secretary (Agriculture), Special Chief Secretary (Animal Husbandry) Principal Secretary (Municipal Administration and Urban Development), Principal Secretary (Health), Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj and Urban Development), Principal Secretary (Water Resources Development), Principal Secretary (Environment, forest, science and technology department) will be the other members in the committee. 

They will  examine the action plan prepared by all the line departments for monitoring water, food, air, soil, agriculture and aquaculture residues on a regular basis. Further, the committee will monitor the implementation of the action plan prepared by the line departments. The committee will be meeting frequently, at least once in a month, to discuss the issues on hand. 

Though the Multi-disciplinary Committee, consisting officials and experts from various national institutions, had failed to come to a conclusion on the exact cause of the mystery illness, they have come out with different recommendations to ensure that such incidents do not happen again. 

Experts were of the opinion that the incident is a one-time episode. However, they recommended a long-term study, given a few similar cases were reported in a couple of villages in the same district in January after more than 600 people were hospitalised in Eluru in the first week of December last year.