About 340 people have been hospitalised due to an unidentified illness in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
The outbreak in Eluru city on Saturday saw patients develop nausea, headache, and suffer fits causing many to fall unconscious, State Health Spokesman Manikyala Rao said.
Accordind to dpa/NAN, health authorities have not yet established the cause of the mystery disease. Blood tests have not revealed any evidence of viral infection.
Domestic media reported that in addition to the hundreds of people who had fallen sick, a 45-year-old man had died of the disease.
But Rao insisted that the death was due to a heart attack and not related to the illness. 168 of the 340 hospitalised since Saturday night had been discharged, he added.
“All patients tested negative for COVID-19. Air pollution, water or food contamination is also ruled out after tests were carried out.
“It is some mystery illness and more lab tests are being carried out to find out what it is,” Rao said.
Special teams of doctors have been rushed to Eluru to investigate the illness and treat victims, while a house-to-house survey is underway to identify patients.
The opposition Telugu Desam Party said that water contamination was the cause of the illness and blamed the administration for negligence.
It demanded a probe and called on authorities to declare it a public health emergency.
Officials are reportedly investigating the cause of the illness, which swept through the town of Eluru over the weekend.
As reported by BBC News, it comes as India continues to battle a pandemic, with the world’s second-highest coronavirus caseload.
Andhra Pradesh has been one of the worst-affected states – at more than 800,000, it has the country’s third-highest case count.
But Covid-19 doesn’t appear to be the cause of the hospitalisations over the weekend. The state’s health minister, Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, said that all the patients had tested negative for coronavirus.
“The people who fell sick, especially the children, suddenly started vomiting after complaining of burning eyes. “Some of them fainted or suffered bouts of seizures,”a medical officer at Eluru Government Hospital told The Indian Express newspaper.
The state’s chief minister, Jaganmohan Reddy, said that special medical teams are being sent to Eluru to investigate the cause of the illness. Mr Reddy is also expected to visit the town to meet the patients and their families.
Srinivas said that the patients’ blood samples did not reveal any evidence of a viral infection.
dpa/NAN/BBC News
