Mysterious fever grips Rourkela, 3,000 ill

The Times of India ^ | March 1st, 2006 | Unknown

[Termite_Commander]

ROURKELA: About 3,000 people in Orissa's steel town of Rourkela have come down with a mysterious viral fever that has health officials completely baffled.

The fever was first reported in a small group at a slum cluster in Panposh on the outskirts of Rourkela, famous for its steel plant, on Monday. Since then, it has rapidly spread to other parts of the town.

The high fever is accompanied by vomiting, headache and acute colic pain, said a senior district health official.

Most of the patients have been admitted to government and private hospitals.

Results of blood tests on about 300 patients indicate that it could be an airborne virus, though a few were also found to be suffering from malaria, the official said.

Specialists from the Veer Surendra Sai medical college hospital at Burla have rushed to Rourkela and are carrying out further tests, he added.

[Termite_Commander]

It was 900 sick yesterday, 3,000 sick today.

Anybody have an idea what the Indians might be dealing with? Looks nasty.

[Red Badger]

e.coli from a sick cow?..........

[ClearCase_guy]

And so it begins.
The Death of all Mankind. We are truly doomed!

Unless Global Warming gets us first.

[Lekker 1]

Considering it is a slum cluster, my first thought would be some type of cholera from their water source.

[voletti]

Germ warfare???

[Red Badger]

Sounds like a bad movie .........or a bad taco............

[Desron13]

Maybe the Bird Flu has finally mutated to the dreaded human pathogen that we have all been hearing about. You just know that thats whats on everyones mind.

[Termite_Commander]

I would think the same, but they say the initial tests lean towards an airborne virus.

[dfwgator]

[agere_contra]

This could conceievably be a toxin exposure: it's all too easy to jump on the virus/bacteria bandwagon.

[GSlob]

Well, given the scale of the infection, they'll have to commit major resources to dealing with it. I'd think that we'll know in a few days - what it is, and what the mortality rate is, and what, if anything, could be done about it.

[randog]

e.coli from a sick cow?..........

Hmmmmm...a fever from a sick cow? Then the only cure is: MORE COWBELL!!

OK, I'll go away.....;^)

[Red Badger]

Maybe they got sick from some Blue Oysters...........

[Termite_Commander]

Interesting take, but would a toxin fit this scenario of "small cluster of cases, 900 cases, 3,000 cases"?

On second thought, I suppose it would. If it gets into a water source of some kind, it might infect in a staggered fashion.

[AbeKrieger]

SOunds to me very similar to what attacked a South Jersey high school last week, which my oldest daughter attends and for once I agreed with her playing hooky.

[Unkosified]

Did we know about this before we let our President go over there?

[Termite_Commander]

I agree. Somebody needs to ship several thousand pounds more cowbell to India at once to get this under control.

[Termite_Commander]

Hope he wears a moonsuit.

=^)

[WakeUpAndVote]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1587577/posts?page=8#8

NEW DELHI: Tens of thousands of people waving black and white flags and chanting "Death to Bush!" rallied on Wednesday in New Delhi to protest a visit by US President George W Bush.

Crowd estimates varied, but one police officer said as many as 100,000 people, most of them Muslim, had gathered in a fairground in central New Delhi ordinarily used for political rallies, ahead of Bush's arrival late on Wednesday.

Among the speakers was Raj Babbar, who said: "Whether Hindu or Muslim, the people of India have gathered here to show our anger. We have only one message- killer Bush go home".

Wednesday's protesters carried placards that read: "Bully Bush, Go Home", and "Death to America, Death to Bush".

__________________

OK, how long will it take before they start screaming, "Where is the US to help!, where is their money?!?!"

[adamsjas]

This could conceievably be a toxin exposure: it's all too easy to jump on the virus/bacteria bandwagon.

Yes, clearly the doctors and scientists on site know nothing, (after all, there's a lot modern science doesn't know), so lets throw out the MSM favorite word "toxin" because it sounds so scientific and knowledgable and so New-Age....