Lost hair, now losing nail: After sudden baldness, people in Maharashtra’s Buldhana face nail detachment

(Representative Image)

Nearly four months after residents of 15 villages in Shegaon tehsil of Buldhana district in Maharashtra reported widespread hair loss, a fresh case of nail deformities and detachment has swept through at least five villages of the area.

“The rapid hair loss began in December. Now, over the past four to five days, people are losing their nails,” said Rameshwar Dharkar, the sarpanch of Bondgaon village, where around 150 residents had previously suffered hair loss. Some of them are now experiencing nail loss as well.

"In the first two days, the nails crack and then they fall. The information was communicated to the District Officer, District Health Officer and Ayush Minister Prataprao Jadhav," the sarpanch said.

"Twenty-nine people have been found with nail deformities in four villages in Shegaon taluka. In some cases, the nails have fallen off. They have been given primary treatment and will be sent to a hospital in Shegaon for further examination," Buldhana Health Officer Dr Anil Bankar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

A district health department team visited the affected villages on Thursday and collected blood samples from those showing symptoms. The condition, which was initially noticed in Bondgaon with seven cases, soon appeared in other villages, including Kalwad, Kathora, and Machhindrakhed in Shegaon tehsil, along with two cases in Ghui village in the neighbouring Meher tehsil.

District Health Officer Dr Amol Gite asserted that elevated selenium levels in the body could be the underlying cause behind both hair and nail loss. “We are expecting more definitive test results in the next few days,” he added.

Earlier, an investigation by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) into the hair fall cases had also pointed to unusually high selenium levels in both blood and hair samples.