New Delhi (AP) – More than 500 people have been admitted to a hospital in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and health officials and experts are still baffled by a mysterious disease in which one person has died. The disease was first detected on Saturday evening in an ancient town of Eluru and is famous for its hand-woven products. Public Health Director Geeta Prasadini said people started chaos without any warning. Since then, 546 patients admitted to hospitals have reported symptoms ranging from nausea and anxiety to loss of consciousness. Many have recovered and returned home, while 148 are still receiving treatment, government spokesman Dasari Nagarjuna said. Teams of experts from India’s top science institutes have come to the city. Different theories have been suggested and are being tested. The most recent hypothesis is food contamination by pesticides. “But no one knows,” Prasadini admitted. What confuses experts is that there seems to be no common ground between the hundreds of people who are sick. All patients tested positive for COVID-19 and other viral diseases such as dengue, chikungunya or herpes. They are not related to each other. They do not all live in the same area. They are of different ages, including about 70 children, but very few are elderly. Initially, contaminated water was suspected. However, the Chief Minister’s Office confirmed that people who did not use the municipal water supply were also infected, and initial tests of the water samples did not reveal any harmful chemicals. He was admitted to the hospital with symptoms such as epilepsy and died Sunday evening, doctors said. Prasadini said at her autopsy there was no light on the cause of death. The hypothesis currently being tested is that people ate vegetables contaminated with pesticides made from organic compounds containing phosphorus. But Prasadini said it was a “hypothesis” based on the fact that pesticides are commonly used in the region and are not available in any evidence. He said experts were examining whether the pesticides contaminated fish ponds or spilled on vegetables. Opposition leader N. Chandrababu Naidu took to Twitter to demand an “impartial, full-scale inquiry into the incident”. Andhra Pradesh is one of the worst affected states by Govt-19 and more than 800,000 cases have been detected. The health system in the state, like in other parts of India, is infected with the virus. AP is solely responsible for all content. .
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