Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease kills eight in two days

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease kills eight in two days

http://www.samaylive.com/news/bjp-alleges-starvation-deaths-in-kandhamal/658987.html

JP alleges starvation deaths in Kandhamal



Tags: Berhampur (Orissa) Buzz up!vote now

Published by: Noor Khan
Published: Sat, 26 Sep 2009 at 19:08 IST
F Prev Next LBerhampur (Orissa), Sept 26 Rejecting the Orissa government's statement that 10 people had died in the tribal-dominated Kandhamal district, the BJP today claimed that the tribals died due to starvation.

A four-member delegation of the BJP's state unit, which visited the village last Friday, said at least 10 persons died after they were forced to consume some non-eatable items due to lack of food.

The leader of the delegation, Karendra Majhi, said the people had consumed mango-kernel and other wild stuff due to scarcity of proper food.

Bibhuti Jena, the state BJP Yuba Morcha president, who was also in the delegation, alleged the villagers were ignorant about the much-hyped NREGA work. Similarly, health services in the village were also poor.

The other members of the delegation were Bhagirathi Majhi, the Rajya Sabha member, and Ashok Sahu, a senior leader of the party.

On the day when the disease struck in the village and the patients poured into the hospital at Gadapur, there was no doctor, they pointed out.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease kills eight in two days

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease kills eight in two days

BOTULISM!!!!!!!!!!! Why didn't I think of that. That is symptomatically and epidemiologically a much better diagnosis. That would explain most of the symptoms. Botulism is a toxin-related disease, and can cause deaths within hours. I had been saying to myself that this sounded more like exposure to a toxin, but I couldn't imagine where villagers in a remote village would encounter such a deadly toxin (this wasn't a manufacturing area, so chemicals were unlikely). I had suspected a pesticide in an above post, but botulism would certainly be a more credible diagnosis.

On the bad side, treatment of botulism frequently requires use of a respirator until the toxin wears off to save a patient's life, and who knows how many respirators are in that area (and how many of those are tied up by H1N1 patients...)

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/...ID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=nUFeEOBkuKw=&SEO=

Home > States > OrissaGovt ‘detects’ disease, BJP calls it starvation


Express News Service First Published : 26 Sep 2009 04:04:00 AM ISTLast Updated :


BHUBANESWAR/PHULBANI: Even as the mysterious disease that claimed 11 lives at Gudrigaon in Kandhamal district was finally identified, the BJP on Friday alleged that those detahs were because of starvation.


BJP State unit vice-president Ashok Sahu, who led a team to the village, alleged that doctors administered chloroquin to the patients without diagnosis, resulting in the deaths. Patients need to take enough food after the administration of the medicine, he said.

The BJP team found that people of the village were unemployed for the last six months. The villagers did not have BPL cards and were not getting rice at subsidised rate.

The Government has shifted the people to camps run by NGOs to save its face, Sahu charged. The villagers have also been deprived of the basic facilities, he added.

There is no drinking water facility and the villagers get black water from the only tubewell in their locality.

Reports said panic-stricken people are fleeing the area to safer places. Rows of thatched houses wore a deserted look.

Even as the people are leaving for their relatives’ houses in other areas, the district administration opened free-kitchen and stationed four mobile health units in the village of 32 families following the deaths that occurred between September 19 and 21.

Director of Health in-charge, along with a medical team, had visited the village on Tuesday. This was followed by a visit of a three-member expert team from Bhubaneswar the next day.

While 28 affected persons were being treated at Daringibadi, six have been referred to the MKCG Medical, Berhampur.

Meanwhile, the killer disease has been detected as `botulism’ - a dangerous form of food poisoning caused by bacteria. This seems to be a fatal disease, said the team of specialists at Phulbani.

The viscera of Rashmita Majhi, who died on September 22, has been sent to a forensic laboratory in Bhubaneswar for further test.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease kills eight in two days

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease kills eight in two days

I'm not sure what the BJP is, but the Orissa state government has diagnosed this as botulism. The BJP calls this starvation, but that has political overtones (blame the government, etc.) Starvation would cause people to eat dirty/contaminated food, and could cause a botulism outbreak, so perhaps they are both right.

Post #62 should go to ProMed to answer their RFI.

I'll let the moderators decide at what point to put "Botulism" or "Suspected Botulism" into the title of this thread.

Update: I guess it's time.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: Confirmed Botulism - kills eight in two days

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: Confirmed Botulism - kills eight in two days

alert, I changed the title. If it's a problem, let me know.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: Confirmed Botulism - kills eight in two days

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: Confirmed Botulism - kills eight in two days

I'm OK with the change (at least unless other articles contradict it). You won't find a more dependable source for information in Orissa that its own government doctors.

 

[Snowy Owl]

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: Confirmed Botulism - kills eight in two days

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: Confirmed Botulism - kills eight in two days

(Bharatiya Janata Party) BJP

This is propaganda I will remove the Botilism in the title

Snowy Owl

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

I may be misreading post #62, but I thought the doctors diagnosed it as botulism, and the BJP were the ones denying it and blaming starvation.

 

[Snowy Owl]

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

BJP lost the election few months ago by the Congress, it wants and used such statements in the past, starvation, massacrers, etc..

It is a radical party openly agaisnt many ethnicity.

BJP teams are not objective they are political.

Snowy Owl

 

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I agree that the BJP is not a dependable medical source - they are a political party. But I don't think they are the ones who diagnosed it as botulism - in fact, my reading of the article indicates that they don't agree with the diagnosis - they want to blame it on the government as starvation.

I think the doctors have diagnosed it as botulism.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease kills eight in two days

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease kills eight in two days

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/...ID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=nUFeEOBkuKw=&SEO=

Home > States > OrissaGovt ‘detects’ disease, BJP calls it starvation

...

BHUBANESWAR/PHULBANI: Even as the mysterious disease that claimed 11 lives at Gudrigaon in Kandhamal district was finally identified, the BJP on Friday alleged that those detahs were because of starvation.

That is my reading on this - the government doctors detected it as botulism, but BJP disagrees. And I agree with you about not trusting BJP.

I think the word botulism probably belongs in the title in some form - you can put "botulism suspected" if you don't trust the diagnosis.

 

[Snowy Owl]

Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

Pune results should come soon 2 or 3 days with the diagnosis.

Snowy

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

This one confirms what I had suspected - everyone took ill at about the same time. Although this source has an error - two of the deaths were on the 19th, so not everyone took ill on the 20th. It also seems to indicate that the deaths are spread across many different families, not just four like an earlier article. It also is in English - this has not been through a translator, so the spelling and grammar error are actually made by the reporter. This source might not be that reliable.

http://www.orissatv.com/NewsDetail.asp?newsId=NS10289

People flee from Gudrika village in Kandhmal Source : OTV Bureau
published on : 9/27/2009 7:55:13 PM E-mail to Friend | Print This News

Kandhamal: Unknown disease so far has claimed 11 lives at Gudrika village in Orissa’s Kandhamal district within the past one week. This has pressed the panic button in the region, with the villagers forced to flee from the area and seek refuge in neighbouring Daringbadi block.

It is a testing time for the people, as many of have lost their dear ones within a short span of time. They are yet to recover from the shock of losing their family members and at the same time they want to protect themselves from the clutches of the deadly unknown disease.

“I have lost my wife and now it is difficult on my part to look after my child who is yet to understand that his mother is no more,”Salman Majhi, Gudrika resident said.

Bulk of the people from Gudrika village has now taken shelter at ‘Jagruti’, a voluntary organisation at Daringbadi block. But the NGO has its own limitation and hence through Otv, they have urged for assistance for the displaced families.

“For the time being we have provided temporary shelter to the people. But we have our own limitations as we do not have facilities to rehabilitate children,” Kailash Dandapatnaik, secretary of Jagruti told.

Meanwhile, efforts are on by the government to examine the cause of deaths in the region. A four-member expert team from the MKCG Medical College and Hospital and one team from the capital city are engaged in uncovering the accurate reason for the deaths of these villages.

Earlier, 18 people from Gudrika village were taken ill after they showed food poisoning symptoms on September 20.

Initially, it was understood that people fell sick due to food poisoning following consumption of toxic mushrooms. Later the doctors felt that the patients might be in the clutch of dangerous malaria. However, the exact cause of the casualties is yet to be ascertained.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

This article indicates 62 people ill, far more than any previous one in this thread, and really inconsistent with botulism, as well as most of the other potential diagnoses we have discussed in this thread so far. It now looks (according to this article) like a significant portion of the village took ill, not just four families. This remains undiagnosed. It is not clear whether any new cases or deaths have been reported since the 23rd. This article is also the first article that mentions any illness before the 19th, claiming the outbreak started on the 17th. It seems that information on this outbreak has been getting harder to get.

It is conceivable that this is a bad article, because of the above differences. I believe this is the source that about a week ago reported the outbreak was in a second village, something no other source confirmed, and they are apparently not still reporting.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/29/stories/2009092951700300.htm

Parties trade charges over Gudrigaon deaths



Staff Reporter






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BJP trying to politicise the death of villagers, says BJD MP

Situation in the village under control: Chief District Medical Officer


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BERHAMPUR: Politicians have started their usual game of verbal war fare over the recent deaths at remote Gudrigaon village in Daringbadi block in Kandhamal district.

At least 10 persons, mostly children, died in the village from Sept 17 to Sept 23. Sixty-two persons of the remote village fell ill. The reason behind the deaths is yet to be ascertained. But possibility of food poisoning and malaria, which were initially thought to be the reason behind the deaths, have now been ruled out by the experts.

Blood and bone marrow samples of victims have been collected by the team from the Regional Medical Research Centre and sent them to the National Institute of Virology in Pune to ascertain the lethal virus that may have caused the deaths. Remnants of the body of a victim are also under scientific post mortem in MKCG Medical College Hospital to find out the cause of death. A team of BJP leaders, who visited the Gudrigaon village, two days back alleged that the deaths were not caused by any disease. According them, the deaths in Gudrigaon were due to starvation and the BJD government in the State was trying to suppress it in the name of disease.

The BJP team included Rajya Sabha member Bhagirathi Majhi, Baliguda MLA Karendra Majhi, BJP candidate from Kandhamal parliamentary constituency Ashok Sahu and State BJP Yuva Morcha president Bibhuti Jena.

The BJP leaders alleged that the inhabitants of Gudrigaon had not been able to get proper employment. Due to lack of income they had to eat uneatable things, which caused their death, they said.

It may be noted that BJP was partner in power with the BJD in Orissa till last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, when they parted ways and BJP became greatest detractor of the BJD. So, the BJD leaders immediately took steps to counter the allegations made by the BJP leaders.

A team of BJD leaders led by the BJD MP of Kandhamal, Rudramadhab Ray also reached the Gudrigaon village to take note of the situation.

After his visit Mr Ray criticised the BJP leaders for trying to politicise the death of people at Gudrigaon. According to him the allegations made by the BJP leaders were aimed at disrupting steps that were being taken by the Health Department to check ailments and deaths in the village.

BJP MLA of Baliguda Karendra Majhi said the delay in ascertaining the disease that caused the deaths at the village hints that some thing is being suppressed by the government.

Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) of Kandhamal Jatin Patnaik however said the situation at Gudrigaon was under control and no fresh cases had been reported from the village.

 

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This is unexpected. This is apparently the SECOND outbreak of this unknown disease in the area. I don't know what to make of that. There seems to be a source for this disease in that area. This is starting to look more like that unidentified encephalitis from UP.

If the elephants killed 10, and this outbreak killed 11, then the previous outbreak must have resulted in 22 deaths to make the 43 total.

I can't find any sign of any articles from the first outbreak. And I have my doubts about it, because this article refers to the current outbreak as "early September", when the earliest onset was 9/17, and possibly not until 9/19.

Why is it so difficult to get accurate information out of this area, even if they cannot diagnose the disease?

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/27812/unfortunate-kandhamal-beset-more-problems.html

Unfortunate Kandhamal beset by more problems
By S T Beuria

Kandhamal seems to be destined to have never ending woes.



As if last year’s communal violence, whose impact was felt for several months was not enough, the backward tribal dominated Orissa district is currently grappling with two more fresh troubles — repeated attacks by wild elephants and an unknown disease that has already struck twice during the last few months.

While last year’s communal riots claimed nearly 40 lives besides rendering thousands homeless, both the recent problems have taken a toll of 43 people so far in the last three months. Ironically, like last year, the state government has once again been found wanting in handling the two recent troubles.

It was a great moment of satisfaction for the Kandhamal district officials when the administration decided to wind up the last of the relief camps set up by the government for riot victims this August after all the camp inmates returned to their respective villages following restoration of peace.

However, their happiness did not last for long as the relief camps had to be set up once again, this time to accommodate villagers affected by the elephant menace. Poor villagers from interior areas of the district had been forced to flee their homes as the attacking herds of pachyderms not only destroyed their houses but also became a threat to their lives.

During the last couple of months, 10 people have been killed by wild elephants while many others have sustained injuries. The district administration has provided the victims of the elephant attacks accommodation in relief camps besides sanctioning compensation for the family of those who lost their lives.

The people, however, seem to be not happy with the steps initiated by the administration. This was clearly evident from the protest demonstrations and road blockades recently organised by the affected villagers in different places in the district. The people want a permanent solution to the menace which the administration has not been able to provide.

Experts believe that the elephants are frequently invading villages and human habitats in Kandhamal mainly because of large-scale destruction of forests. Besides the timber mafia, the rioters had also played a key role in destroying the forest wealth during the last year’s communal violence in the backward district which was once known for its thick forest cover and excellent weather.

So far as the ‘unknown disease’ is concerned, it has made life miserable for the people after it returned in early September in Daringibadi area of the district. The disease — which is yet to be identified despite several attempts made by teams of doctors sent by the state health department — had first hit the district in July.

The disease has triggered such a fear in the interior pockets that villagers have started fleeing from their homes.

This strange disease has once again brought to the fore the poor healthcare system in the backward regions of the state. It is important to note here that just a couple of weeks back another backward district of Kalahandi was under a spell of diarrhoea, which claimed 25 lives.

The Naveen Patnaik administration need to do much more on the healthcare front, otherwise it may have a severe impact on its public image. The opposition parties like the Congress and the BJP have started targeting the government on the recent health problems in Kandhamal and Kalahandi.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

An unrelated article published today. Apparently they are back to suspected food poisoning (botulism could be considered a form of food poisoning).

We have read so many different descriptions of what happened, each with its own likely diagnosis. Some of the descriptions seem like encephalitis (possibly the one from UP?), some sounded like a person-to-person spreading disease, and some sounded like exposure to a toxin, possibly a repeat exposure. We can't even get a reliable description of how many took ill. Some article indicate there were only a couple additional illnesses, whereas some have suggested as many as 62, and one article has suggested an entire previous outbreak.

It is notable that this source is recognized by Google as a news source, whereas every article since the one that mentioned botulism was not.

http://www.kalingatimes.com/odisha_..._Naveen_Patnaik_goes_to_Kandhamal_by_road.htm

Naveen Patnaik goes to Kandhamal by road
KalingaTimes Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Oct 1: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had to go to Kandhamal by as bad weather prevented his helicopter from flying from the Capital city to the strife-torn district on Thursday.

“The Chief Minister has left for Kandhamal by road as the helicopter could not fly down to the district de to inclement weather,” an official said here.

The rains were continuing over coastal Odisha for the past four days due to a low pressure over the Bay of Bengal badly affecting normal life.

Patnaik was scheduled to visit Phulbani, the district headquarter town of Kandhamal , which is more than 200 km away from the Capital city.

Patnaik was scheduled to attend a series of programmes at Phulbani town.

His proposed visit to Gudriguma village where 11 persons had died due to suspected food poisoning recently had been cancelled.

Among other things, Patnaik was scheduled to launch a new scheme to provide health cover to school students. The programme, to be implemented under the National Rural Health Mission, was likely to benefit more than 58 lakh students of 60,000 schools in the state.

The Chief Minister was also scheduled to address a rally where he was to distribute land patta to the landless families.

As all the programmes were to be conducted behind the scheduled time, Patnaik was expected to return to the Capital city by road by 9 pm, official sources said.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?glide=EH-20090923-23271-IND&cat=dis&lang=eng

Situation Update No. 1
On 30.10.2009 at 19:16 GMT+2

It was not botulism or food-poisoning which killed the dozen villagers in Kandhamal?s Gudrigaon last month. A deadly virus called Chandipura which had swept across Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in the past with an alarming fatality rate is the killer. Between September 17-25, at least 11 deaths were reported at Gudrigaon, close to Daringibadi, even as Health administration found it hard to ascertain the reason attributing botulism (a bacterial infection caused by toxic food) to be the main cause. Eight of the victims were children below 10 years. A team from Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) which carried out field investigation collected blood and serum samples of family contacts and other acquaintances who had developed symptoms of motor weakness, vomiting and convulsion followed by spells of unconsciousness and neurological problems with the help of Health Department officials.

Since similar sporadic cases were reported from Malkangiri in early October, samples were collected from the affected persons there. The samples, sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, were subjected to specific ELISA test. Of the total 30 samples, four tested positive for Chandipura virus encephalitis. Of the 21 collected from Gudrigaon, three were positive pointing out what claimed the lives in Kandhamal. The virus spreads fast but it was not known how it transmitted. "Clinically, it is after four days of the onset of symptoms that antibody is developed in patients. Since a number of serum samples were collected in the first three to four days, not all cases would come positive,?? Dr SK Kar, Director of RMRC said. Chandipura virus, first reported from a village in Nagpur in 1965, owes its clinical name to the place. In 2003, when an outbreak of acute encephalitis took place in Andhra Pradesh, 329 children were affected out of which 183 died. Similarly, 115 casualties were reported from Vidarbha and Marathwada regions during the same period. In 20 per cent cases, the Chandipura virus was found present.

In most cases, children were victims with 80 per cent deaths occurring in 24 hours of hospitalisation. Kar said, complete information on source and the vector has not been found yet. The situation, however, could pose a challenge since the virus has been spotted in Malkangiri and Koraput.

 

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Re: Orissa - Mystery disease: kills eight in two days

Unbelievable. Another one gets diagnosed, a MONTH after the fact. Snowy was right - it was encephalitis, and it was infectious, if not contagious. Chandipura virus. I was close by guessing Nipah (that would have been a viral encephalitis - but the epidemiology was wrong).

This thread gets renamed (and maybe moved) now. I suggest as a title "Kandhamal: 11 die from Chandipura virus". I wonder how much of the unidentified encephalitis is acutally caused by this virus.

Obviously, someone should send this post to ProMed to answer their RFI (from September!!!). And that just about wraps up all the undiagnosed outbreaks from over the summer (except the Libyan plague and the dysentery in Guyana - and I don't think we will hear any more on either of them).

And we all owe Snowy an apology.