Mystery blind births in Bihar

Ajay Kumar from Bihiya, Parshuram from Shahpur, Shatrughan from Barhara and Arun Kumar from Piro, all villagers of Bhojpur district in Bihar, have one thing in common: their new-born babies are blind at birth. There are 16 other couples from different parts of this district whose infants are afflicted with the same congenital defect. Bhojpur is in the grip of a mystery disease - 20 children have been born blind in the last three months. The state government is clueless about the cause of the congenital blindness. Also, neither the government nor the district's ophthalmologists have been able to ascertain the exact reason behind the recent spurt in such cases. Until now, they have been only hazarding guesses ranging from high arsenic content to the presence of lead and other poisonous metals in potable water. In fact, so clueless are the authorities that they don't even rule out the possibility of environmental pollution as a possible cause of the congenital blindness. "It could even be electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone towers," district civil surgeon Dr K.K. Labh said.

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