RAIPUR: A mysterious illness has claimed the lives of 13 villagers in a month in a remote village in insurgency-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. The administration, however, says there have been five recent deaths, the cause of only two of which is yet to be ascertained.
News of the deaths in Dhanikorta took time to get out. A health team was immediately rushed to the village, around 30km from the district headquarters and 400km south of Raipur. All the victims complained of chest pain and persistent coughing before their deaths, say sources.
Nearly every household in this small hamlet in Chhindgarh block, close to the Odisha border, is affected, say sources, adding that residents are scared they will be next.
Sukma chief medical and health officer Dr Kapil Dev Kashyap told TOI that there have been five deaths “in recent past”. “Three died in the district hospital due to age-related ailments and the causes of the other two are being ascertained. The main reason, our health teams have found, is the change in weather, coinciding with mahua harvest time, when villagers go into forests and collect mahua the whole day. This is leading to dehydration and they are falling sick,” he said.
Medical camps are working continuously on “curative and preventive” measures, and villagers are given ORS as they are adamant on going to the forest to gather mahua, Kashyap added.
“Door-to-door surveys are on, and anyone returning from the forest or found to be sweating hard after field work, is being given ORS. Others with complaints of uneasiness are being treated and monitored. We have asked them to report immediately in case they feel unwell,” he said.
According to a govt doctor, they were informed about the deaths only two days ago and medical teams were sent immediately. Doctors are running health checks on villagers, and have collected blood and urine samples for tests.
Since all the victims have been cremated and no autopsy was conducted, the cause of deaths has not been determined yet. “Further investigation is needed before a conclusive diagnosis can be made. We are trying our best to get an early diagnosis so that preventive measures can be taken, if needed,” said an official.
Videos of villagers mourning their loved ones are going around. One of them shows a man, looking extremely nervous, saying that he has similar symptoms and isn’t sure how long he’d survive. Health teams are going door to door asking villagers to alert authorities if anyone has such symptoms.
