Covid-19 has impacted the world like anything and honestly, people cannot afford another outbreak. However, an unknown disease had been detected amongst the people of Eluru in Andhra Pradesh. People contracting the disease reported multiple symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headache and loss of consciousness. Some of the more concerning symptoms of this unknown, mysterious disease are severe anxiety, convulsions, seizures and neurological symptoms which mirror epilepsy. The children who contracted the illness reported an onset of vomiting followed by burning eyes.
The disease remains to be an idiopathic one. While the people were concerned over the Bharat Band during the beginning of December, cases of the disease had been reported already, with the first case being reported on December 5th. Several fell severely ill and the next week reported the death of a 45-year-old man. A significant portion of the population who were infected by the disease happened to be children and youngsters between 20 – 30 years of age. Over 450 people had been infected according to the reports. The disease spread mainly in Eluru but it also spread to the Denduluru village. The infected were being admitted in the Eluru Government hospital. However, the ones who experienced more severe symptoms were sent to institutions in Guntur and Vijayawada.
The disease seemed to be similar to some sort of poisoning and unlike Covid, this mysterious disease was considered not-contagious, seemingly birthing from a particular source. Several people had correlated the disease with the contaminated water that the people in those areas were consuming. The lack of a proper sewage system was at the focal point of conversation when it came to what could have been causing the infections. After December 8th, the number of cases being reported saw a sharp decline but some previously infected people were readmitted to the hospital due to suffering a second seizure. Two people who contracted the disease reportedly died on December 10th but this was debunked by the health commissioner of the district who stated that one of them suffered a stroke and the other person died due to Covid. This unknown disease had caused them to get immunocompromised so it is a very lethal disease to catch along with Covid-19. However, no new reports regarding the disease have been filed since December 12th. Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, the state health minister of Andhra Pradesh had attested that the town was nearing a situation where the mystery illness had ceased to exist and infect people.
Blood and urine samples from patients were tested to determine the cause for the outbreak. Viral infections were not reported and neither were bacterial ones. Water pollution was considered to be the primary suspect, due to the use of organochlorides in pesticides. However, that was not the case either because organochlorides would have supposedly caused respiratory issues and fatality. On December 16th, it was concluded that the pesticide residue in the water was what was causing the illness, along with high metal content in milk and mercury in surface water. These conclusions were drawn by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI) after extensive research.
