No fewer than 300 persons have been left hospitalized after an unidentified illness broke out in southeastern India where at least 1 person has been confirmed dead by local authorities who are currently investigating the outbreak.
CNN reports that the patients in the city of Eluru, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, had filed reports a range of symptoms which included seizures, loss of consciousness and nausea over the weekend.
The outbreak of this strange illness comes even as India continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic, with the world’s second-highest number of infections.
Reports have claimed that Covid-19 wasn’t the cause of the mass hospitalizations over the weekend.
Dolla Joshi Roy, the district surveillance officer of Eluru’s West Godavari District said;
“All (300) patients have tested negative for Covid-19. About 180 patients have now been discharged, while the rest are stable. The patient who died had reported similar symptoms to the others, but then had a fatal but unrelated cardiac arrest”.
Andhra Pradesh’s Health Department said it had conducted initial blood tests and did not find any evidence of a viral infection, such as dengue or chikungunya, which are both caused by mosquito bites.
Authorities have since begun testing water samples in Eluru for contamination, after all the patients were found to receive their water from a common source. Water samples have so far been collected from 57,863 households and sent to a forensic laboratory for investigation.
Specialists from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and a neurologist have been brought in to conduct further neurotoxic tests, and are waiting for the results.
“The cause is still unknown but still we are doing all kinds of testing, including testing food and milk,” said Roy.
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