Initial reports suggest neurotoxic poisoning led to the mass illness that sent about 600 people in hospital in Eluru, a southern Indian city with a population of 300,000.

Patients were brought to hospitals with symptoms of seizures, convulsions, vomiting, foaming and tremors, but most were quickly discharged.

Footage filmed on December 8 shows patients being treated at a hospital in the southern Indian city.

A preliminary report by a team from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, has found traces of lead and nickel in some blood samples suggesting heavy metal contamination.

Doctors have ruled out links to COVID-19 after 65 new patients tested negative for coronavirus.

Dr A S Ram, a nodal officer at the Eluru Government Hospital, said patients suffered genuine epileptic seizures.

“Some people are saying that it is mass hysteria, but it isn’t. Many of the patients came in with minor head injuries or a black eye as they collapsed suddenly,” he told local media.

Initial reports suggest contaminated water led to the mass illness that sent about 600 people in hospital in Eluru, a southern Indian town with a population of 300,000.

Patients were brought to hospitals with symptoms of seizures, convulsions, vomiting, foaming and tremors, but most were quickly discharged.

A leading private lab in Vijayawada found alarming levels of pesticide in local water samples.

Dichlorodiphenyldichlorethane (DDD), a chemical used in pesticides, was found at 14.21 and 15.23 per mg/l way above the acceptable limit of 0.0001.

Similarly, a herbicide, alachlor, was found at 10.88, and methoxychlor, a pesticide, was found
at 17.64, against the acceptable level of 0.001 for both.

Media reports said two canals which supply water to Eluru are also used for irrigation and pesticide-laced water may have spilled over from the farms.

A team of scientists probing the incident said additional tests with large samples are underway to ascertain the cause of illness.

A preliminary report by a team from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, has found traces of lead and nickel in some blood samples suggesting heavy metal contamination.

Doctors have ruled out mass hysteria as the cause of illness. Dr A S Ram, nodal officer at the Eluru Government Hospital, said patients suffered genuine epileptic seizures.

“Some people are saying that it is mass hysteria, but it isn’t. Many of the patients came in with minor head injuries or a black eye as they collapsed suddenly,” he told local media.