The district health department of Maharashtra’s Buldhana has identified 37 patients suffering from nail deformities. These are the same patients from 15 villages of Shegaon taluka in the district who experienced severe hair loss in December 2024. Dr. Amol Gite, district health officer of Buldhana said that three days ago, the sarpanch of the village informed him about the incident and the medical team was sent to check on the patients.
Dr. Gite said, “The nail deformities are of different kinds; some are experiencing nail separation from the nail bed while some have curved and depth in the middle of the nail and slowly it is shedding. After identifying them, we have given them calcium and multi-vitamin supplements. They vary from all age groups, from children and to older adults and most of them are those who suffered hair loss earlier. But the nails are growing back too just like how hair grew back. We have recorded instances where people lost nails last month and they now have fully grown nails.”
Nail deformity or shedding could have several reasons, such as exposure to different metals, Dr. Gite said. “We are yet to receive the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) report which can reveal the actual cause that can help us cure the root issue,” he added.
In February this year, health experts had said that the wheat sourced from Punjab and Haryana, and distributed through ration shops in Buldhana, were noted to contain significantly high levels of selenium.
Health experts on Thursday said that it is known that exposure to high selenium content can cause extreme hair loss and can further lead to nail shedding and deformity.
All the affected persons come from lower-economic strata who are mostly engaged in agriculture and contractual jobs.
In December 2024 and January 2025, over 190 people from 15 villages of Shegaon were gripped with a strange kind of hair loss condition that has resulted into baldness among children, men and women starting from the age of four. Experts from ICMR had said that the scientific term for this condition is anagen effluvium, a type of hair loss that occurs when hair in the growth phase is damaged. It’s a non-scarring form of alopecia.
A team of experts from ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai and All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi collected sample that was sent to ICMR- National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH) lab in Bhopal and AIIMS Delhi to find the reason behind the hair loss. Samples were collected from over 155 people from all age groups.
The dermatology teams from ICMR and AIIMS collected samples of hair, blood, urine, water, biopsy sample from the scalp, environmental and biological samples. None of the patients had any common symptoms nor were they suffering from any health concerns such as fever or diarrhoea. They allegedly do not use products like shampoos or conditioners. Those experiencing hair loss and nail deformity, eagerly await for the report hoping that it might hold the key to resolving their unexplained health concern.
Published – April 17, 2025 10:39 pm IST
