New Delhi: A suspected case of water contamination has led to the hospitalisation of 227 people in Eluru of Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district. Officials have not ruled out the prospect of viral encephalitis, Indian Express has reported.
PTI had reported a day ago, on December 5, that the first symptoms were of fits and nausea, after which patients fell unconscious. “But all of them turned normal within a few minutes,” the report said.
The incident began in the One-Town area of Eluru and the symptoms are primarily bound to residents of four societies in Ashok Nagar and Arundhatipet. Here, a case of drinking water contamination had been reported a little over a week ago.
According to the Express report, 76 adults and 46 children are in the hospital, undergoing treatment, while 70 have been discharged.
A six-year-old girl was shifted to Vijayawada after her condition worsened, Times of India has reported.
West Godavari district Joint Collector Himanshu Shukla told PTI over phone that a CT scan of the initial victims was also taken and everything turned out to be normal.
Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu, who heads the Telugu Desam Party, has pointed out that the Eluru constituency is represented by the state’s health minister.
Ironically, this is Health Minister’s constituency. The Eluru incident has brought forth an irresponsible YSRCP Govt’s collective lack of conscience and inability to govern yet again.(2/2)
— N Chandrababu Naidu #StayHomeSaveLives (@ncbn) December 6, 2020
Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas is also deputy chief minister and has said that teams of doctors have been rushed from Vijaywada and additional beds have been set up at the Eluru Government Hospital to deal with the situation.
“We have collected blood samples and sent them for examination to determine the cause of the disease,” he told PTI.