Sixty-five people in Punjab's Sangrur have been hospitalised after they attended a “miracle” hair growth camp and applied a product supplied by the organisers on their heads. According to India Today, people who used the product reported a severe burning sensation in their eyes and had to be rushed to hospitals.
The camp had attracted hundreds by claiming to regrow hair in just a few days. They also ran a robust social media campaign.
One of the victims who had both his eyes bandaged at a hospital told India Today, "We were told to apply the product on our heads and leave it on for 10 minutes before washing it away. I had not even washed my face after applying it even then it triggered a reaction."
Civil Surgeon Sanjay Kamera said that a medical inquiry has been initiated. "We have informed the police. A team of police officers and health officials will be formed. Action will be taken against those responsible."
The police said that an investigation is underway.
In a recent incident also involving hair loss, a Padma Shri-awarded physician found the answer to a mystery that has been bothering residents of Maharashtra's Buldhana district for weeks. At least 279 people in 18 villages in the region were reported to have 'acute onset alopecia totalis' or abrupt hair loss between December 2024 and January 2025. Due to the disease, the affected individuals — many of whom were young ladies and college students — faced numerous societal obstacles. Some people even shaved their scalps to try to escape humiliation because of the social stigma associated with alopecia.
Amid this, Padma Shri awardee and MD of Bawaskar Hospital and Research Centre, Dr Himmatrao Bawaskar, conducted a study and found that the baldness could be linked to high selenium content in the wheat that the residents of Buldhana have been consuming.
"The primary cause of the outbreak was linked to wheat imported from Punjab and Haryana, which is found to have a significantly higher selenium content than the locally produced wheat," he told news agency PTI.
He added that the analysis of wheat from the affected region revealed that it contained 600 times more selenium than the locally grown variety. This high selenium intake is believed to be the cause of the alopecia cases. The probe also found a marked increase in selenium levels in the blood, urine and hair of the affected individuals.
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