Mystery disease in India, 160 dead in 2 weeks time, spreading rapidly

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Rural Kanpur is fighting its most frightening scourge - a mystery disease that has left a long line of bodies in its trail and doesn’t seem anywhere finished. What started from one village two weeks ago has now spread to 350 and has so far claimed 160 lives. Thousands more are bed-ridden. On an average, 15 to 20 people have been dying every day; Saturday saw the highest toll in a day: 24. The district’s health department is somewhat confused about the nature of the disease that has struck. At the beginning, the diagnosis was viral fever. Then doctors concluded that it was falciparum malaria. But after two weeks, they have ruled out both but still don’t have an exact answer. “We really don’t know what exactly it is; we are depending on the finding of a team of specialists from New Delhi,” said Dr RC Agarwal, the district’s new chief medical officer.

(click on above link for the rest of the news article)


[edit on 25-8-2008 by mrsdudara]

They have ruled out Malaria and apparently Hepititus E which were both suspected just days ago. They can not get Dr.'s in the area to help. Whats worse is that fear has caused everyone to run, and this is rapidly spreading to the surounding areas.


Also, just to clairify one thing. This 160 dead is in one village. One village where approximatly 300 people came down sick with this. They are now estimating 1000 sick in the surounding areas.

[edit on 25-8-2008 by mrsdudara]

That sounds truly terrifying...Can anyone say "Four Horsemen"? I really hope this doesn't spread but if there's anything we can already take away, it's a slight, estimated statistic: 160 out of 300 are dead, and that's in a rural commune...Imagine if this spreads to city with air travel.

But again, I really pray this doesn't spread...It appears pretty merciless...

water toxins? common water sources need checking, as does common food stuff.

Also there needs to be a plague check done - if there have been no Drs on site, this could be very bad indeed.

What ever it is, its deadly, so they better find out sooner rather than later.

Wow that is not a good thing, 160 dead, no doctors there and a rapid spreading disease. When did these "specialist" start there research? does anyone know?

[edit on 25-8-2008 by Hakii]

Here are a couple more articles.

this one says mostly the same as above
India yahoo news


This one is before they tested and retested the blood samples that showed a mystery disease instead of malaria
New Kerala
It talks about how villigers report 1-2 people sick in every home.

reply to post by Dan Tanna


They were recently hit by a monsoon. So everything is filth.






reply to post by Hakii


Its my understanding that they started their research approximatly 2 weeks ago when two children died of this fever.

[edit on 25-8-2008 by mrsdudara]

That level of mortality would seem to suggest a hemmoraghic fever of some sort. I'm pretty sure I misspelled hemmoraghic. I'd think that they would be able to rule out Ebola, Marburg and the like though.

That area is close to where HN51 Avian Flu has infected humans. www.pandemicflu.gov... ; not at all certain if there is a correlation.

Originally posted by argentus
That level of mortality would seem to suggest a hemmoraghic fever of some sort. I'm pretty sure I misspelled hemmoraghic. I'd think that they would be able to rule out Ebola, Marburg and the like though.

Yes I would agree with that. H5N1 while lethal does take a bit longer than this mortality rate that this suggest.

H5N1 looks like Hemmoragic fever. So it is a contender.


Since it is monsoon season, the fecal matter from birds could be in the water and infecting people that way. That might limit the effected area, but it makes the area an incubator for mutation to a direct human to human transfer for whatever disease this is. The death rate so far is a little low for the current H5N1 which is about 80%, but the numbers may be sloppy.

reply to post by mrsdudara


Rural area mortalities are too often caused by weakened immune systems most often caused by toxic agents, pesticides or industrial spills.
In distant rural areas, climatic change may cause numerous water puddles and even leakages from toxic deposits.
Pesticides, herbicides and other toxic agents weaken the immune system, and any concomitant viral infection due to pesticide resistant insect vectors needs to be looked into at the same time.
Everything must needs be done to assist with expert analysis.
Thanks to the Foxnews website,I got this information initially ( but there was something wrong with the link there ) .
I hope the US CDC could assist with expert advice towards swift consultation with Indian experts on this horrific invisible tragedy.
I pray that answers could be found as soon as possible.
My heartfelt condolences to dear Indian people.

Prayerful wishes from P. Shahir

UNfortunately or maybe fortunately India has experience with deadly viral outbreaks. Maybe their experience will help them catch this one quickly without many more deaths

timesofindia.indiatimes.com...

With a typhoon hitting then recently. A parisitic invader that may have been left dormant in the highlands and awakened by the waters brought down through those high areas. This happened in An area in Africa in the 60's. Some parisites a so small they are hard to locate in blood samples and mask themselves in the cells. Some cause the body to attack itself much like hemoragic fever!

Zindo

Here's an update:

Virus spreads in Kanpur, babus fight losing battle

61 more people have died in the past two days.

Still no word on what this virus is or how to fight it.

It's not likely a hemorrhagic fever. They are too debilitating and lethal to spread very far. Most commonly you'll see a tight locus of illness and then it dies out. Whatever this is seems to be spreading geographically at a fast rate.

out of interest i wonder what they are doing with those that have died? as their bodies are obviously contaminated? Does anyone else think that the places that this is occuring are going to have to be cordoned off with people still living there? i forgot the word thats used...

I think the word your looking for is..QUARANTINE. JTMA, your right but some parasitics cause the body to immitate many of the same symptoms. I haven't seen a geographical mapping of the area yet on any web site. Theres so many ways to spread in a large population as India has.

Zindo

True Zindo but vectors are disease-specific. The fact that local health officials haven't already identified it is troubling in the extreme. They already know what diseases are endemic to the area and what each's vectors are. Has anyone seen an article with any descirpion of symptoms and/or disease progress?

thats the one thanks, had a complete mental block

The district’s chief medical officer claims it is a water-borne disease. ‘The symptoms are clearly of viral fever and jaundice...
A majority of the sick people are children,’ chief medical officer Satya Singh told IANS by telephone.

He, however, blamed the villagers for not approaching doctors on time for treatment. ‘Instead of visiting the government hospital, which is barely three kilometres from the village, they (villagers) rely on quacks who give wrong and expired medicines,’ Singh said. He added that the disease was caused due to water-logging in most of the areas and unsafe drinking water used by villagers.

visz.rsoe.hu...

At least they're giving out some details of the symptoms,which is more than we've heard so far.
Similar to viral fever and Jaundice... I wouldn't be to hasty on the 'clearly' bit yet.