What caused the mystery illness in Eluru? AP Government has some answers

The month of December didn’t quite get off to a pleasant start in Andhra Pradesh. As the first week concluded, the news of a ‘mystery’ illness sweeping the town of Eluru, the district headquarters of West Godavari, sent tremors across the state. With over six hundred being admitted to the hospital and a person succumbing to the illness, all within a span of few days, the government and experts were left in the lurch in search of answers. However, with a multi-disciplinary committee probing the incident closely and several other experts chipping in, the government finally seems to have a few answers as to what is likely to have caused the ‘mystery’ illness in Eluru.

On Wednesday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a video conference with experts from several institutes to discuss what could have possibly caused the outbreak of the mystery illness in Eluru. Putting an end to over two weeks of speculation, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), and other reputed science institutes in the country have said that high residues of pesticides could have caused the unfortunate outbreak. The experts though informed that more research is required to establish how the pesticide residues made their way to the human body.

CM YS Jagan directed the officials to conduct more tests to make sure that such incidents would not repeat in the state. As a precautionary measure, he also ordered testing of water samples from all the districts.

Meanwhile, the findings by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Hyderabad, revealed that the air pollution in Eluru was within permissible limits. The institute also said that the underground and surface water from the region contained all metals within permissible limits, except mercury. NEERI, however, said that they haven’t found any traces of organochlorine, organophosphates, or lead in the samples.

On 5 December, scores of people in Eluru complained of common symptoms including headache, nausea, neck pain, and epilepsy. They were admitted to the hospital for medical care. The preliminary report by the AIIMS suggested the presence of traces of heavy metals – lead and nickel in the blood samples of the victims.