Mysterious illness in northern India has killed more than 300 people

Doctors in a northern Indian state are struggling to identify a mystery disease that has killed more than 50 people over the past two weeks. The suspected virus strikes mostly children and older people who suffer from high fever, vomiting and headaches, eventually leading to death. SP Ram, a top medical official in Uttar Pradesh state, said Thursday, "We are not able to identify the killing virus. It can be a mutant form of dengue or malaria. We are not sure." Ram said microbiologists are trying to pinpoint the exact cause of the deaths. In the state capital, Lucknow, nearly 340 people have been affected by the disease.

RSOE


Prior to that 256 people died with in a few days. The Dr.'s have no idea what this virus is. I think a lot of the deaths have to do with lack of medical attention and malnutrition. Still, I hope they figure out what it is soon and get it under controll.

reply to post by mrsdudara

Hello MrsDudara and thank you for posting this thread. It certainly seems a matter of some concern and I hope they work out what the pathogen is as soon as possible.

It's odd that they seem to be talking about malaria as if it is caused by a virus, because rather than being a viral disease it's a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. (Genus: Plasmodium.) Perhaps the reporting was a bit awry. Dengue fever, on the other hand, is caused by a virus, and so that could be where they are concentrating their efforts.

Mike

reply to post by mrsdudara


Check this out from two years ago:

Mystery illness killing Indian crocodiles

Three decades after it was brought back from the brink of extinction, the rare Indian crocodile known as the gharial is turning up dead by the dozens on the banks of a river called the Chambal. Forest officials are at a loss to explain why.

Since mid-December, the National Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary has confirmed 76 deaths along the river, which begins in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and runs through Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

www.nytimes.com...

Uttar Pradesh? Where is this latest outbreak?

'County / State: State of Uttar Pradesh'

Which raises alarm bells in my mind when taking this into account:Lab Rats? Drugs for US children tried on Indians

I believe they may be referring to NDM-1. (aka) Delhi Metallo-Beta-Lactamase 1. Its hitting kind of hard in the UK right now, turning up in patients returning home from Pakistan and India, who had visited those countries for medical treatment. Seems like this thing might go Pandemic soon.

www.thefirstpost.co.uk...

I can't help but think this may be a(the) source of what kills people and crocodiles. Can you imagine what kind of micro organisms are spawned in this muck? Not only is it polluted with trash, there is raw sewage too.
I hope they are able to identify and treat this bug before it causes an epidemic.

LiveForever8 brought up a good point too, in that in order to shorten the test trial period on new Amer Pharm drugs, they outsourced the process to where there are less regulations. And on the children?!?
www.trouw.nl...
www.tampabay.com...






Peace,
spec

please tell me those kids in the water are not dead because if they are you should have given a warning of some kind of this picture

reply to post by Traydor


No they are not dead, and I would post a warning if they were, and of course we probably would have heard of that here. I just Googled pics of India's polluted rivers and these are some that came up. There are numerous shots of people/kids swimming, bathing and defecating in these rivers.

spec

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Thanks for letting me know, it's a real disturbing photo, i can't believe kids would be in the water with all that rubbish

wow a communicable disease that kills people and crocodiles!,That so many kinds of screwed up ,we're toast.

crocodiles have survived 250 millions of years on this Earth

a disease that can kill such a wide range of species is danger on an unimaginable scale

any one know if any other animals are being affected?

Another interesting thing to point out:

Poliomyelitis, a contagious viral disease that once crippled and killed thousands of children annually, has been eliminated in most of the Western world thanks to a vaccine invented by Jonas Salk in the 1950s, but it still survives in some of the world's poorest countries. India seemed to be on the verge of eliminating polio last year, when it reported just 66 cases of the disease, down from 1600 in 2002. This year, however, things have gone horribly wrong with India's polio elimination campaign; 325 cases have been reported already, and at least 23 of them have been fatal. What's caught people's attention is that 70% of those infected with polio this year are Muslim, even though Muslims account for only 13% of India's population. What's even stranger, and frightening, is the reason: some Muslims believe that the polio drops are part of a conspiracy to sterilize their children, and are refusing to let them be vaccinated.
www.time.com...

Sufferers of Poliomyelitis exhibit the same symptoms that are currently being reported in India. Just another possibility. The simple fact is that in a post monsoon India (a very poor part of India) these outbreaks aren't rare occurrences.

so the crocodile connection is a a boondoggle?

'cause that's kind off a relief ,polio will always be around ,but a pandemic of cross species mayhem is scary indeed

reply to post by MrsBlonde

so the crocodile connection is a a boondoggle?

I think the croc reference was a speculation for any correlation between these sudden fatalities in numbers. The croc article suggests they suffered either from lead poisoning or toxicity that destroys the liver and sends the immune system into a frenzy. In this case it seems to be environmental. There are no cross species issues in this one.
www.nytimes.com...

The human cases on the other hand I guess we will have to wait on the autopsy report, but these polluted rivers, as mentioned in the croc article, could create a plethora of virus', mutated and yet to be identified, as well as harbor poisonous toxins from industry and sewage.

peace,
spec

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


looks like our future if we don't get religion and figure out what to do about our own water pollution issues

this can happen anywhere , and it's getting worse in the US

how come people are willing to live up to their necks in their own garbage?
I 'd go get some neighbors and clean up my own hood,and I have ! I wouldn't let it stand that's for sure!

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist

Caption (dialog):

"Rajiv, did you just pee in the water?"

"Yes, Prakash, I did pee in the water."

"Gross dude. How can I be expected to swim in that filth?"

reply to post by mrsdudara


so is it over 300 or 50???? make up your mind

reply to post by Mactire


Thanks for that I had not heard. Go figure the best way to fight it ....good hygiene.

reply to post by bluemirage5


It is over 300 people. Over 50 of them died in two weeks.

Most recent update includes

“We cannot give the exact reason for the deaths, but it could be due to unhygienic living conditions in Khadra,” said A.K. Shukla, Lucknow’s chief medical officer. Khadra is home to upwards of 250,000 people and the entrance to the neighborhood consists of heaps of rotting garbage, fetid, stagnant water, open sewer drains, and many people do not have indoor toilets, so human waste also contributes. The water source for the people is located near an open drain, and supplies a dark brackish water, and is where many people get their water for drinking, cooking and bathing. “We are living in hell. We drink muddy water and live in a neighborhood full of filth and dirt,” said Kamla Maheshwari, a housewife, as she waited for her turn at the community tap.

Things like that remind me how luck I am to live in the USA. How can a government slack off so much to have their citizens to live like that? While we worry about gas emissions and the air we breathe, they do not even have plumbing or clean running water. No person should be a living petri dish. There is no telling what kind of superbug can develop in those conditions that put the rest of us at risk. Their government should be held 100% accountable. If nothing else, educate them and give them the tools they need to fix their situation.

Once the Indians and Pakistanis have all the atomic bombs and rockets they think they need, perhaps the rivers will get cleaned up, don't hold you breath though. (unless you are visiting those countries)