The central government is rushing a three-member team of medical experts to Eluru in Andhra Pradesh after Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday spoke to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan as many children were hospitalised with an undiagnosed illness in the past few days.
The 3-member team of medical experts to Eluru, Andhra Pradesh include Dr. Jamshed Nayar, Associate Professor (Emergency Medicine) from AIIMS, Dr Avinash Deoshtawar, Virologist, NIV PUNE and Dr. Sanket Kulkarni, Deputy Director, PH Expert from NCDC, Delhi, according to a release of Vice President's Secretariat.
According to the release, on seeing reports of more than 300 children becoming ill, the Vice President initially spoke to the district collector for firsthand information. He later spoke to the Director, AIIMS at Mangalagiri and Director, AIIMS Delhi and was informed that blood samples of the children were sent to Delhi.
Subsequently, the Vice President spoke to Harsh Vardhan and asked him to extend all necessary help in diagnosing and providing treatment to the afflicted children. The minister assured him that all steps would be taken to find out the cause of the illness once the lab reports are received.
The Union Health Minister and the Director of AIIMS assured the Vice President that treatment would be taken up upon diagnosis of the illness on receiving the reports of the blood samples.
District Collector Revu Mutyala Raju informed the Vice President that necessary measures were being taken to ascertain the reasons for the illness among the children. He said that a door-to-door survey was being conducted and medical teams from Guntur and Krishna Districts were pressed into service.
The children reportedly suffered from dizziness, fainting spells, headache and vomiting. The Vice President was also informed that a poison control team from AIIMS had discussed with the doctors at Eluru regarding the incident on Sunday.
A report released by the West Godavari district collector said that as many as 340 people fell sick out of which 157 are still undergoing treatment. As per the report, one person has died while 168 have been discharged. 56 doctors including specialists are providing treatment to the patients. Besides, a household health survey has been conducted in 57,863 houses to shed light on the matter.
( With inputs from ANI )
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