Current affairs

Eluru outbreak: How the mysterious disease got spread in AP and what we know so far?

By alagu, 07 December, 2020
India, Andhra Pradesh, Eluru

The state of Andhra Pradesh has been going through a nightmare after a mysterious disease has been haunting the residents -particularly in the West Godavari district with Eluru as the epicenter. Amid being filled with the perplexion of ascertaining the cause and source of the sudden and unprecedented outbreak, the center and state health mechanisms have been deploying the measures to identify the cause and to address the medical cure to the affected persons. 

The storm of the mysterious disease has killed at least one and had put hundreds of people in the hospitals. Eluru city has witnessed the storm of the outbreak from nowhere on Saturday following which, the city was surfaced with the grounds of being an epicenter. According to reports, a 45-year-old man from Kandrika Gudem in Eluru had developed convulsions on December 5 at around 3.30 pm. He was moved to the hospital and ironically, it was identified that the quadragenarian had no previous history of fever, headache, vomiting, head injury, trauma, or diarrhea.

The quadragenarian was the first case of reporting the mysterious disease in Eluru. According to reports, there have been mass reportings of convulsions from 5 pm on Saturday as many persons had contracted the disease. While most of the affected persons had reported no previous histories of symptoms, some had reported vomiting within the Eluru municipality. Following the grounds of spread, Andhra Pradesh had witnessed a total of hundred cases from 7 pm to 11 pm on Saturday who got affected by the mysterious disease. 

On Sunday, December 6, the state had added 210 additional cases of the disease while it had reported around 30 cases on Monday - December 7 by the time of writing this content. With a total of nearly 350 cases in three days, around 180 patients have been discharged while one had died on Sunday due to nausea and epilepsy and nearly 170 patients have been currently getting treated at the hospitals with the state and central health authorities have rushed to the state to ascertain the cause of the disease and the Andhra Pradesh government had launched a probe into how it got spread. 

The reports say that 62 medical camps have been installed in the state and the government had deployed paramedical teams to carry out a door-to-door survey in Eluru after the outbreak. These medical camps have been set up in all the 62 ward secretariats in the Eluru municipality. During the survey, it was identified that few cases from the same areas were reported last week and they were treated at the private hospitals. With the view of addressing the emergencies, Eluru municipal jurisdiction has been stationed with fifteen units of 108 ambulance service to swiftly shift the patients to the medical facilities. 

The ground level teams are collecting and testing the water samples in the locality as, the reports say, all the 350 cases were found to have a common source of water supply from Pampula Cheruvu. However, Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh AKK Srinivas said that the test results had established that water contamination was not the cause of the mysterious disease. According to reports, of these 350 cases, males were affected more and graphing under the category of age, 16-30 years age group had got affected more.

With the view of ascertaining the disease, water samples have been sent for analysis, and nine units of milk samples from the affected areas have been dispatched for testing. Random sampling CSF (Cerebrospinal fluid) samples were taken from the affected persons. However, the authorities say that the results of these reports were normal and the affected persons had also undergone rapid antigen tests and the cases were reported negative for COVID-19. The tests for epidemics like Dengue and Chikungunya were also done and returned negative. 

Following the outbreak, the government has initiated sanitation measures in the areas that had reported the infections of the mysterious disease. What we know so far is that the expert team from AIIMS, Delhi comprising of a physician, pathologist, and microbiologist had visited the patients in Andhra Pradesh and interacted with them about the illness. The special team has decided to collect Blood, Urine, and RT-PCR samples from the patients randomly and the samples will be dispatched to AIIMS, Delhi, and to the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad for further analysis. 

The health officials of the state had on Monday morning said that 186 patients have been discharged so far while over 160 are under the active line of treatments at the government-run medical facilities while the disease had claimed one life. A team of doctors from AIIMS, Mangalgiri, scientists of the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology have been deployed to Eluru to unveil the source of the disease. 

The West Godavari district administration has installed a 24*7 control room in the Eluru Municipal corporation office exclusively for reporting and monitoring the disease and had declared a holiday for Eluru. According to ANI, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy had visited Eluru on Monday to take stock of the situation and review the state's response to the mysterious disease. He had visited the patients in Eluru government hospital and would be meeting the health officials of the West Godavari district. Deputy Chief Minister of the state AKK Srinivas had visited the hospital on Sunday and asserted that there is no need to panic. 

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy had spoken with Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney and took stock of the situation and assured the state that the Central government is ready to extend all the possible help to the state. The reports say that the Union Home Ministry has been in touch with the Andhra Pradesh Governor, who has issued orders to the health authorities to ensure proper medical facilities and treatment for the affected persons. 

 

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