Experts puzzled by strange illness sickening people in India

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Over 500 patients and one death in a south-eastern coastal region of India have been affected by a strange illness.
• Experts concluded thus far that it is not COVID-19 related or of common viral diseases as several tests show negative results.
• Teams of specialists from India’s top organizations cannot find any links between those affected including the local water supply.

Detected on a Saturday evening in Eluru, India, health experts and officials are still trying to figure out the cause of an illness that makes people start convulsing without warning.

Symptoms are ranging from nausea, anxiety, up to the loss of consciousness observed from 546 patients who went through hospitals. According to a government spokesperson, Dasari Nagarjuna, several have recovered and returned to their homes, but 148 are still getting treatment.

Several teams of health specialists from the top scientific institutes have poured into the city in hopes of identifying the source and cause of the ailment.

So far, different theories have risen and are currently being experimented with. The latest view is there may have been food contamination, possibly with pesticides. People may have ingested vegetables that were tainted with organic compound pesticides containing phosphorus. However, Greta Prasadini, the director of public health, stated, this is still an “assumption” as the use of pesticides is expected in the area.

Prasdini admits that “nobody knows” what is causing the latest mystery illness that has hospitalized over 500 people and a single death in Andhra Pradesh, a south-eastern coastal region of India.

Experts were baffled because there does not seem to be any common links among those affected. Additionally, all patients have negative results for COVID-19, and other viral diseases such as herpes, dengue and chikungunya.

Specialists say that those who got sick are not related to one another, nor do they live in the same area. All patients vary in age groups, but less are elderly. Contamination of water supply was among the first suspects, but the chief minister’s office confirmed that even those who are not using the municipal water supply are affected. In addition to that, water samples that got tested did not report any harmful substances.

The single death recorded was Sridhar, a 45-year-old male who suffered symptoms that resembled epilepsy and died Sunday evening. According to Prasadini, the autopsy yielded nothing to help assist them in their search.

COVID-19 is still ravaging the health care system of the state of Andhra Pradesh with over 800,000 cases and is among the worst affected by the current pandemic in India.

Source: AOL.Com