Previously submitted to: JMIRx Med (no longer under consideration since May 14, 2021)
Date Submitted: Feb 8, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Mysterious Disease Strikes Andhra Pradesh, India- initial analysis of cases of an unknown disease
ABSTRACT
People from 3 districts of Andhra Pradesh, India were struck by a mysterious disease on Saturday December 05th, 2020. Epileptic like symptoms were present and most common differential diagnosis which can be made as of now is to classify them under Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) or some form of heavy metal or insecticide poisoning affecting the Central Nervous System (CNS). To understand the reason behind the sudden illness blood tests, CT (brain) scans and Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) tests were done on patients but all test reports have turned out to be normal. Approximately 600 cases and 1 death are reported till 13th December 2020. Majority of the victims were in the 20- 30 years age groups. All the patients followed the same sequence of events having dizziness, headache, nausea, foam in mouth and epilepsy-like symptoms. Serological, viral markers and radiological findings along with COVID-19 reports were negative/ normal. Symptomatic management was provided, and patient recovered without any neurological abnormality. High levels of Lead and Nickel were found in the blood samples of some patients. This is the first report as it provides preliminary findings of the mysterious disease. More information will provide further clarity about the outbreak
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