1 Week Of Eluru Mystery: Cause Still Unknown

It’s been a week since mystery illness broke out in Andhra Pradesh’s Eluru. Hundreds of people have been admitted to hospitals with the symptoms of epilepsy since December 6.

The mystery disease has hit national headlines as it killed one and affected over 600 people including women and children. While the 613 people have been affected so far till Friday, 600 have been discharged and 13 are undergoing treatment in hospitals. AP CM Jagan too visited and met victims.

From AIIMS and Institute of Chemical Technology experts teams to the WHO experts are among those who visited Eluru and carried out detailed analysis. Several prima facie reports have indicated contamination of water, traces of chemicals in food and water consumed by the victims of the strange disease.

Chemicals such as Lead, Nickel are found in blood samples of victims. Meanwhile, food consumed by the victims have been tested. The National Institute of Nutrition found that  Mercury is in rice, pesticides and herbicide residues in excess quantities in vegetables.

The agency also found Organochlorine, Organophosphorus are in some blood samples of the victims. The agency suspected the cause of pesticides for the strange illness.

AP Pollution Control Board too examined the air quality and water in Eluru, but it didn’t find any heavy metal in water. The Institute of Preventive Medicine, in its analysis, found no heavy metal in milk.

Despite all these investigations and probes by various renowned health agencies, there is no concrete report yet on what could be the reason for the mystery. The causes for the mystery remains unknown.

The final reports of the national agencies are expected to come by Wednesday i.e Dec 16th and the state government can only act based on the final reports.

Health Minister Nani said the government needed five more days to take effective and permanent measures pertaining to the mystery illness.

While the number of daily cases have come down, but the fear among the people is intact. It needs to be seen what steps the government is going to take in the coming days.