Eluru mystery disease: WHO adds bleaching, chlorine in Covid-19 sanitisation measures to the suspect list

Even as the Jaganmohan Reddy government struggles to confirm the cause of the Eluru mystery malady, experts from the World Health Organization have added bleaching and chlorine used in Covid-19 sanitisation measures to the suspect list.

In March, the beginning of the pandemic in the state, chief minister Reddy had advocated paracetamol as the remedy and bleaching of the surroundings to prevent the virus spread.

On Wednesday, the fifth day since the sudden illness surfaced in the Andhra Pradesh town, total cases remained below 600 as new cases reduced drastically.

The CM conducted a virtual review on the situation as the cause of the disease remained elusive.

The World Health Organisation experts told the CM that “they suspect bleaching and chlorine used in sanitation measures as part of Covid-19 prevention might have been the cause.”

A two member WHO team, which arrived in Eluru on Tuesday, surveyed the affected areas, collecting the food intake habits, health details of the victims.

Differing views

Doctors and experts from AIIMS, New Delhi said that a comprehensive investigation with blood, water and milk samples is on, “but it was primarily revealed that the blood of those who fell ill contained Lead, Nickel particles in high levels.”

“Since Indians have a certain amount of nickel in their bodies, we suspect that lead presence might have caused the illness. A significant drop in these lead levels was found post 24 hours of patients showing symptoms,” the AIIMS team told the CM.

Delhi AIIMS experts said that recycling, dumping of broken batteries, or their burning could have led to the air, soil contamination, which subsequently could have entered the human bodies by various means.

At the same time, experts from AIIMS Mangalagiri suspect that pesticides could have contaminated the organic chlorides, leading to the condition.

The National Institute of Nutrition team from Hyderabad said that they have not found any unsafe substance yet in the vegetables, food essentials samples.

Indian Institute of Chemical Technology experts said that high levels of lead were found in blood samples of the patients, while nothing hazardous was found in the water samples yet.

The Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology investigators said that they are probing for any virus angle to the illness.

While urging the experts to find the actual reason behind the illness at the earliest, Chief Minister Reddy said that corrective measures will be taken based on the final outcome.

Health officials said that case numbers are declining and the patients are recovering within 3-4 hours.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu demanded that a health emergency be declared in Eluru and surrounding parts, and life, health insurance cover be extended for the locals.

Dr AVR Mohan, Superintendent of the Eluru government hospital said that no fresh case was reported since Wednesday afternoon.

“We only had 18 admissions today, which took the overall cases to 589. The number of patients remaining in our hospital at present is 42,” Dr Mohan told DH.