TIRUVANNAMALAI: One after the other, seven persons, including two children, have fallen victim to a mysterious fever gripping Thandarai village in Tiruvannamalai district in a span of mere 20 days.
All the deceased had complaints of vomiting and stomach pain. 80-year-old Joseph of Thandarai colony was the latest victim on Tuesday. He too started vomiting around 10.30 pm the previous day and was rushed to the Tiruvannamalai Medical College Hospital (TMCH), where he died. The village is about 19 km from Tiruvannamalai town on Vettavalam road and has 160 families in the colony.
The series of deaths started on October 5. Around 2.30 pm, Christopher (13), a Class VII student hailing from the colony, developed vomiting at his house. He was taken to Tiruvannamalai Government Hospital the next day, but was declared dead on arrival.
It was followed by the deaths of Vinodh Kumar (23), Nelson (6), Krithika Merlin (8), Munusamy (70) and Amudha (27) in the next to three to four days. While the two children were studying in schools, three others were daily wage workers.
TMCH doctors, who initially thought these were natural deaths, woke up only after the death of Amudha four days ago. After they alerted the Health Department, the district administration has opened the medical camp in the village with three doctors, eight nurses and assistants. Blood samples have been collected from the locals. However, officials said they were unable to ascertain the exact cause of the death. V Govindhan, Deputy Director of Health Services, Tiruvannamalai, told Express that they were awaiting for the laboratory report on ground water and drinking water in the colony.
“Before dying, Munusamy was injured in the head, while Amudha had already underwent brain surgery at Vellore Medical College hospital a year ago. However, we are yet to come to any conclusion on the death of the other five. There was nothing unusual in their blood samples,” he said.
While ruling out any possibility of communicable diseases in the village, he said this could possibly be due to food poisoning. Medical College sources said Joseph’s body has been sent for autopsy. The other six persons were brought dead, hence their bodies were returned without autopsy. Officials expect that the autopsy report could unravel the mystery over the sudden deaths in the village.