A week since the onset, cause of Eluru mystery illness remains elusive

After AIIMS & WHO's varying suspicions, National Institute of Nutrition and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology experts put out new postulates

As a mystery illness grips Andhra Pradesh's Eluru, experts from the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) suspect pesticide residues to be its cause. Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) investigators believe organochlorine, organophosphorus found in the serum samples to be the origin.

The Hyderabad based NIN's researchers have also found mercury in the samples of rice they collected from the affected area households.

Read: Warning signals from Andhra Pradesh's Eluru

“We have also found organophosphorus in the blood samples. It has to be determined how these elements entered the human body,” the NIN experts told chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy during his virtual mode review with officials and experts on Friday, on the still elusive cause.

Simultaneously, investigators from the IICT, another Hyderabad based central institute, revealed that they found organochlorines and lead in the blood samples of the patients.

"Organochlorine, organophosphorus is found in the serum samples, which we believe has caused the malady,” IICT experts told Andhra CM Jaganmohan Reddy, while certifying the water samples as clean.

The NIN, which formed a nine-member committee to solve the riddle, also said that pesticide residues were found on tomato samples. “Our tests on the food samples are going on,” they said.

In the last few days, various research, medical organisations postulated different possible reasons for the illness that affected around 600 people in the Eluru municipality area, with sudden symptoms of 3 to 5-minute epilepsy, fainting, nausea, anxiety and headache.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) tests detected lead and nickel particulate matter in the blood samples of the patients, while experts from the World Health Organisation have suspected bleaching and chlorine used in Covid-19 sanitization measures as the reason.

Officials said that only two locals were affected by the Eluru disease since Thursday night and that 13 people are under hospital treatment as of Friday evening.

The Eluru government hospital saw a rush of the patients beginning last Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government has constituted a chief secretary headed multi-departmental committee of senior officials and experts from the AIIMS, NIN, CCMB, WHO, IICT, NIV, NCDC etc institutions to investigate the source of the Eluru illness infection, and suggest remedial measures to prevent such occurrences anywhere in the future.