The Andhra Pradesh government has constituted a 21-member high level multi-disciplinary committee to investigate the mysterious disease that affected hundreds of people in West Godavari district.
More than 600 people had taken ill in Eluru and neighbouring villages with symptoms of neurotoxicity, and are undergoing treatment in Eluru Government General Hospital (GGH) and other hospitals.
Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney will head the committee and Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Anil Kumar Singhal will be the member-convener.
Experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and Mangalagiri, World Health Organisation, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, National Institute of Nutrition, National Centre for Disease Control and Indian Council for Medical Research, who camped at Eluru and were investigating the outbreak of the disease, and officers of various State government departments are members of the committee.
The committee has been asked to investigate the source of the infection and suggest remedial measures.
“The committee has started its investigation. We are visiting the affected areas, interacting with the patients, their families and the local residents. We will visit the GGH and hold discussions with the doctors,” said a committee member.
Th experts visited Dakshina Veedhi, Kothapeta, Toorpu Veedhi and other affected areas and interacted with the residents.
The specialists enquired whether the affected people were consuming drinking water from taps, borewells, tanks or packaged water (purified water), the symptoms they suffered when they fell sick, whether they had epileptic attacks earlier, if they had seizures for the second time after getting discharged from the hospital, if any other family members was suffering from neurotoxicity symptoms, and how many cases were reported from one locality.
Meanwhile, the medical camps set up in the colonies were continuing in Eluru town and the ward secretaries and volunteers were conducting house-to-house survey on the health situation in the district.
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