Hundreds of people infected by mysterious, deadly illness in India

Shafaq News/ A “mysterious” illness has killed one person and left hundreds hospitalized in central India just two days after people began showing symptoms.

It began on Saturday when 45 people from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh began showing strange symptoms, including seizures, sudden loss of consciousness, frothing at the mouth and body shivers, according to Times of India.

The publications said about 300 people are in hospital with the ailment, including 46 children and 70 women.

Some of the children began vomiting after suffering burning eyes, according to the Indian Express.

The person who died was undergoing symptomatic treatment in hospital.

Local health authorities reportedly remain clueless about what is causing the illness.

Dr Sushasini Krishna was quoted by the Times of India as saying she had never seen such cases in her 25-year career.

Samples of cerebral-spinal fluid have been sent to a laboratory to be examined.

Authorities are looking into if the symptoms stem from air pollution or contaminated milk, the publication said.

Some people are said to have chalked up the illness to mass hysteria.

It comes as India battles Covid-19. The country has reported more than 9.57 million cases, the world’s second highest after the US, with nearly 140,000 deaths.

Last year, more than 110 children in India, most from poor rural families, died from encephalitis, a type of brain disease that has afflicted the eastern state of Bihar for more than two decades.