At least one person has died and 227 have been hospitalised by a mystery illness in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
The symptoms for the unidentified illness ranges from nausea to fits and falling unconscious.
Officials are still investigating the cause of the illness, which swept the town of Eluru over the weekend. It comes as India continues to battle a pandemic, with the world’s second-highest coronavirus caseload.
Andhra Pradesh in particular has been one of the worst-affected states – at more than 800,000, it has the country’s third-highest case count.
The latest illness is reported to be a different case from coronavirus as the state’s health minister, Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, said that all the patients had tested negative for coronavirus.
A medical officer said, “The people who fell sick, especially the children, suddenly started vomiting after complaining of burning eyes. Some of them fainted or suffered bouts of seizures.
The state’s health minister stated that it is a mystery illness as blood samples taken from the patients didn’t reveal any evidence of a viral infection.
In his words, “We ruled out water contamination or air pollution as the cause after officials visited the areas where people fell sick,”
“It is some mystery illness and only lab analysis will reveal what it is.” he added.
However the opposition Telugu Desam Party has called for an enquiry into the incident, insisting that contamination was the cause of the mystery illness.
