Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a mystery illness has taken over the town of Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, with the first case being reported on Saturday, December 5th. By the next day, over two hundred people were hospitalised, suffering from convulsions, dizziness, and 3-to-5-minute seizures followed by vomiting or unconsciousness. Sunday also saw the death of a 45-year-old man hospitalised along with the other patients.
As of Thursday, December 10th, the total number of people hospitalised has crossed 600. The number of victims began decreasing on Tuesday, while on Wednesday, twenty were admitted with none suffering from seizures or convulsions. On Thursday, less than 20 people were hospitalised and undergoing treatment for the same reasons. In the case of most patients, according to doctors at Eluru Government Hospital, the patients’ health improved after one to two hours of treatment, and they were subsequently discharged. The cause of the illness is yet to be identified, and infection by SARS-CoV-2 has been ruled out after all admitted patients tested negative for the same, alongside other viral diseases such as dengue and chikungunya.
In the blood samples of 25 out of 45 of the victims of the outbreak, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi found traces of lead and nickel. This led public health experts and scientists to believe that the illness stemmed from heavy metal contamination of the drinking water supply of the town, contaminated by pesticides or insecticides containing heavy metals and organochlorides from the agricultural fields through which the Krishna and Godavari rivers, the two primary sources of water for Eluru, flow. Officials from the district administration and Eluru Municipal Corporation also considered whether the excessive use of chlorine and bleaching powder for water sanitisation for COVID-19 prevention might also have contaminated the drinking water. However, on Wednesday, officials ruled out water and air to be the source of the illness, since people consuming packaged water, as well as people from towns that do not receive water supply from the Eluru municipal corporation, have also been affected by the mystery illness along with 70 percent of Eluru’s population. The Andhra Pradesh Government then looked into the possibility of fruits and vegetables being the origin of the sickness, having been treated with the organochloride- and heavy metal-containing pesticides. This theory was also ruled out since these pesticides also contained organophosphorus, which would have caused respiratory failure and hence, would’ve resulted in a higher fatality rate.
Currently, investigations are underway regarding whether or not battery waste could be the origin of the high lead content found in patient blood samples. The leader of the Opposition, N. Chandrababu Naidu has written to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy and called for setting up quick-response teams and a special control room to facilitate the provision of immediate medical response to the victims, as well as long-term monitoring of the patients and conduction of scientific studies to unveil the cause of the illness.
Sources:
Janyala, Sreenivas. Explained: What Do We Know About the Mystery Illness in Eluru? 10 Dec. 2020, indianexpress.com/article/explained/eluru-mystery-illness-cause-symptoms-reasons-investigation-explained-7099120/.
Ganeshan, Balakrishna. “Eluru Mystery Illness: Officials Rule out Air, Water as Source of Poisoning.” The News Minute, 10 Dec. 2020, www.thenewsminute.com/article/eluru-mystery-illness-officials-rule-out-air-water-source-poisoning-139311.
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