Lead and nickel content in drinking water and milk was primarily established as the root cause of the mysterious disease in Eluru city of Andhra Pradesh, which so far claimed one life and left over 500 people sick. Based on the preliminary findings of the expert teams from AIIMS and other state and central institutions, health officials presented a report to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy here on Tuesday. A CMO release said lead and nickel were found to be the causative agents for the mysterious disease, citing a report prepared by the AIIMS experts.
By Tuesday morning, the number of cases increased to 505 and the number of discharged was 332. There have been no reports of any casualties other than 45-year-old Sridhar from Vidyanagar, who died on Sunday evening.
Those two are heavy metals and their traces were more than normal in the blood samples we sent to AIIMS-Delhi. Lead is a neurotoxin and affects the nervous system. However, it is too early to come to a conclusion. We have sent 40 more samples of water and milk to AIIMS as requested and once we get the report, we might able to ascertain the cause of the mystery illness,” Eluru Government General Hospital Superintendent Dr AV Mohan told the media.
According to him, the frequency of hospitalisation is decreasing compared to the previous two days. “At present we are preparing to discharge 30 more patients and closely monitoring the health of those in the hospital and also those discharged,” he explained.
