Mysterious Fever Outbreak in India’s Gujarat Kills 16
A boy in Gujarat, India. X/ @sinardailymy
September 12, 2024 Hour: 9:57 am
The patients who died from the disease had symptoms like fever, cold, cough, pneumonia, and breathing issues.
On Thursday, Gujarat Health Minister Rushikesh Patel confirmed that a mysterious fever outbreak in the western Indian state has killed 16 people. The outbreak has been reported in several villages of Kachchh district, about 380 km west of Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat.
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Doctors have yet to diagnose the disease accurately. Health officials said cases of mysterious fever began to pour in immediately after the region was hit by flooding following heavy rainfall.
“So far 16 deaths have been reported in seven villages of Lakhpat and Abdasa of Kutch after the outbreak of fever. The health department of the entire state is in action to ascertain the reasons behind the disease,” Patel said.
The patients who died from the mysterious disease had symptoms like fever, cold, cough, pneumonia and breathing issues. Health officials said since the beginning of this month over 60 cases of mysterious fever have been detected.
“It does not appear to be from contamination nor does it seem like a communicable disease. Samples are being collected for testing against dengue, malaria, H1N1 swine flu, and pneumonia. Teams from the health department are keeping a close watch on this,” said Amit Arora, district collector of Kachchh.
Officials have sent 11 samples of the deceased to Pune’s National Institute of Virology to determine the cause. “The results are expected to arrive in a day or two,” Arora said.
This season the Kutch district received the highest rainfall in Gujarat, recording about 890 mm of rain, or 184 percent of the average until Sept. 10.
teleSUR/ JF Source: Xinhua