VIJAYAWADA: In a major relief to the state administration there has been a gradual decline in the number of the mystery illness cases with only 13 fresh cases reported in Eluru on Thursday.
The state health authorities maintain that none of 13 cases have shown any convulsions unlike in earlier cases and patients complained about giddiness. After taking rest for some time and getting medication in the government hospital at Eluru, they were back to normal in a short while.
However, the authorities collected their blood and urine samples and sent them for analysis. At present, 32 patients are undergoing treatment at the government hospital in Eluru and another 23 in the government hospital at Vijayawada. So far one death due to mystery illness has been reported and two deaths reported in Vijayawada were due to other health problems even though the patients were referred from Eluru.
The health authorities say that both AIIMS and NIN confirmed the presence of lead in the blood samples of affected persons as of the 50 samples tested by AIIMS, 80% were found to be with lead while 10 samples tested by NIN, also found similar presence.
Now, the authorities intend to find out the presence of organochlorine concentrations in the blood and urine of the affected persons by carrying out enzyme estimation for acetylcholinesterase. As concentrations of organochlorine in the blood cannot be found easily due to quick metabolism, the authorities have to rely upon enzyme estimation to find out its presence.
Meanwhile, teams of officials from National Center for Disease Control and National Institute of Nutrition are visiting several affected parts in Eluru and also its suburban areas to collect samples of food, vegetables, water and even the leftover food of the affected persons for analysis to find out the reasons for the mystery illness.
On the other hand, Central agencies like AIIMS, NIN and IICT are expected to submit their test reports on Friday while CCMB will do so on Wednesday. Department of agriculture has also been roped in to find out about the type of pesticides being used by the farmers to raise crops.
Director of health Dr T. Geeta Prasadini said “We are hopeful of finding out the reason on Friday as several Central agencies are supposed to submit their test reports to the state government. Once we find out the cause, we will take all requisite steps to avoid its recurrence.”
