A rural area in India is being hit hard by a deadly and mysterious disease.
The sickness has been spreading like wildfire from one village to another in the outskirts of Kanpur – a city located in northern India, the Hindustan Times reported.
So far, 160 people have died and thousands more are bedridden. On average, 15 to 20 people die each day from the mysterious illness, according to the report.
At the beginning of the outbreak, the region’s health department diagnosed the disease as a viral fever and then thought it was falciparum malaria — the most dangerous form of the mosquito-borne disease. But two weeks later, experts have ruled out both and are still confused about the exact nature of the illness, the newspaper reported.
“We really don’t know what exactly it is,” Dr. RC Agarwal, the district’s chief medical officer, told the Hindustan Times. “We are depending on the finding of a team of specialists from New Delhi.”
Blood samples have been collected from a few patients and a team of specialists from the Infectious Disease and Surveillance Program, New Delhi, will report their findings in a few days, according to the report.
Click here to read more on this story from the Hindustan Times.
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