Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
At least 18 people have died and several others have fallen ill with a mysterious illness that first started sweeping through southwestern Nigeria last week, and both local medical experts and the World Health Organization are now scrambling to try to identify the ailment.
The disease, which was first reported in the the Ondo state of the country, is reportedly marked by blurred vision, weight loss, headache and a loss of consciousness. All of the victims died less than 24 hours after first reporting symptoms, and laboratory tests conducted thus far eliminated Ebola as a possible cause of the illness, according to BBC News.
Officials have reported that the outbreak started in the Ondo state’s Ode-Irele town, and WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl has told reporters that those affected first started showing symptoms between April 13 and April 15. The disease appears to be attacking the central nervous system, state health commissioner Dayo Adeyanju told Nigeria’s Premium Times.
Alcoholic beverages, herbicides may be to blame
CNN.com reported that some are suspecting that locally brewed alcohol may be the cause of the illness, but that the WHO had send blood, urine and spinal fluid samples to a university in Lagos for tests. Those tests have ruled out infections resulting from viruses or bacteria, the website said, and doctors now plan to conduct toxicological tests on one of the victims.
Sky News quotes Adeyanju as stating that the mysterious ailment is “’neither contagious nor epidemic,” and that his team’s investigations “revealed that the victims, who are commercial motorcyclists, gathered at some local joints to (drink) alcoholic substances mixed with roots and some other local herbs on the evening of the outbreak of the disease.”
Another possible cause is herbicides, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said via social media, the International Business Times noted. Nigeria’s government banned the sale of 30 commonly-used agricultural chemicals in 2008 after learning that they could cause fatal food poisoning. At that time, the country’s food and drug agency recommended only using chemicals that had been specifically approved by the government, the media outlet added.
In addition to the 18 people who died as a result of the condition, five others survived but have gone blind, Adeyanju added. Ondo State officials have created an emergency response task team aimed at investigating the cause of the illness, and are working along with the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm the cause.
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