In the last eight days, the number of people who died of a strange fever in Lakhpat, in Gujarat's Kutch district, has increased to 15, despite the fact that the cause has not yet been identified by the authorities. Between September 3 and September 7, at least 10 people, including children, died from the fever, which was first thought to be pneumonitis. Since then, at least five additional people have passed away.

In order to ascertain the reason of the fatalities, district collector Amit Arora stated that 11 samples of the deceased had been submitted to Pune's National Institute of Virology. “The results are expected to arrive in a day or two. We will have to wait for the results to find out whether this is a known virus or something new.”

He claimed that all potential illnesses, including H1N1, swine flu, malaria, dengue, and Crimean-Congo fever, have been ruled out by the tests conducted thus far. According to Arora, neither pollution nor communicable disease seemed to play a factor in the fatalities.

According to officials, extra doctors and 22 monitoring teams have been sent to the Pakistan border region of Lakhpat.

ALSO READ: Mpox Scare: WHO Declares Global Public Health Emergency Amid Rising Monkeypox Cases Worldwide: What You Need To Know

The epidemic coincided with a lot of rain and flooding in the area. As of September 10, the Kutch district had recorded around 890mm of rain, or 184 percent of the average, making it the district in Gujarat with the most rainfall this season.

The patients were having trouble breathing and fever, cold, cough, and pneumonia, according to the locals. Mamd Jung Jat, a different district panchayat member, said that medical professionals were unable to correctly identify the illness.

Even if some of the symptoms resemble those of pneumonitis, the Rapid Response Team (RRT) is still looking into the fatalities to find the precise cause.