Thirteen more cases of the undiagnosed illness were reported in Eluru of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday pushing the total number to 600, said District Coordinator of Health Services A.V.R. Mohan.
Earlier in the day, Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney called on the people who fell sick due to the disease — the root cause of which was still not conclusively known — at the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Eluru.
Ms. Sawhney interacted with the patients, and also enquired about the outcome of the study being done by doctors and other experts from Mr. Mohan.
District Collector R. Mutyala Raju informed Ms. Sawhney about the number of patients being treated in the hospitals and the areas where people fell sick with convulsions and dizziness as the dominant symptoms.
Meanwhile, doctors and experts from the AIIMS, the National Centre for Disease Control, and the Institute of Preventive Medicine were continuing their investigation into the neurotoxicity symptoms.
In Vijayawada, Health Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas sought to know from officials the treatment being given to the 23 patients at the GGH in the city.
He said the results of tests done by all the diagnostic labs were likely to be known by December 11 evening and pointed out that nickel and lead poisoning might have caused the sickness as suggested by preliminary reports. The number of cases had come down considerably, the Minister added.
