Daltonganj, June 17: The Palamau district administration has pressed the panic button following the detection of five dropsy cases in the district. The disease is caused by the consumption of spurious mustard oil.

The Military Hospital at Namkum, Ranchi, has sent a message to the Palamau civil surgeon today to take precautions to prevent an outbreak of dropsy epidemic.

Five members of a family in the Nai Muhalla area of the town have been admitted to the Military Hospital in Namkum Ranchi with the disease.

Civil surgeon R.P. Sinha said the Military Hospital wanted him to find out whether the mustard oil mill at Nai Muhalla was “piling” its product with inferior quality oil and whether the family, afflicted by the disease, was using oil from the mill.

Sinha said the victims, who had relatives in the army, went to the hospital near Ranchi, when their bodies began to swell.

Sinha said the doctors at the hospital diagnosed the disease after several pathological tests. The family, undergoing treatment for over a week, is reportedly out of danger. According to the doctors, they could be cured because of the early detection of the disease, Sinha added.

After receiving the message, Sinha today instructed the doctors of the local Sadar Hospital to check every patient for symptoms of dropsy.

Sinha said samples of mustard oil would be collected from the mill and tested. “If the oil is found contaminated, action will be taken against the mill.”

He said nearly a decade ago, a dropsy epidemic had broken out in the district. The administration had cracked the whip on several mills located in the town and those found selling “spurious” products had to face penal action. “People even stopped using mustard oil as a cooking medium and switched to vegetable oil,’’ the civil surgeon recalled. Sinha said dropsy could be fatal if not detected early.

According to him, a small part of the mustard seed has to be taken out before putting raw mustard in the crusher to extract oil. But most mills fail to do so. The virus usually incubates in that particular part of the seed.