- Representational photo.
NEW DELHI: Medical experts have so far failed to trace the cause of death of 14 people, including children and women, due to some mysterious disease in the Badhal village in the border district of Rajouri.
Fourteen of the 38 affected persons have died since Dec 7, 2024.
Mass burial of three children, Zahoor Ahmad (14), Mohammad Maroof (10) and Naveena (8), who died during treatment in the medical college here, was done on Tuesday (Jan 14) in the village.
Another child, Safina Kousar (6) also died Tuesday in the SMGS Hospital here.
Two more children are undergoing treatment here.
All affected persons belong to three interlinked families.
Experts from the PGIMER Chandigarh, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), National Institute of Virology (NIV), National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Defence Research and Development (DRDO) and other organisations have so far been unable to detect the cause of these deaths.
Different causes of these deaths are circulating in the region.
J&K chief secretary Atal Dulloo, who on Tuesday held a high level meeting on the issue, directed the Police to utilise the best of their resources to study these reports along with using other scientific measures to reach the conclusion.
He also asked the Health Department to study these reports to find the reasonable leads causing these deaths.
Experts said that neurotoxins were found in the samples of the deceased persons which is further being investigated to know more about it.
Dulloo discussed the issue with the officers concerned from divisional and district administrations along with health experts from several national health institutions to take stock of the measures taken so far to identify the real causes behind the mysterious deaths reported from village Badhal in district Rajouri.
The meeting, besides Secretary Health & Medical Education Department was attended by additional director general of police (ADGP) Jammu; Divisional Commissioner, Jammu; DIG, Rajouri-Poonch Range; DC, Rajouri; SP, Rajouri; Principal, GMC, Jammu; Principal, GMC, Rajouri; Director, Health Services, Jammu and Experts from PGIMER, CSIR, National Institute of Virology (NIV), National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), DRDO and others.
The Chief Secretary impressed upon the Health and Police Departments to assess the reports received from different institutes of repute to identify the real cause of these deaths.
He asked them to work in close coordination to take this investigation to its logical conclusion.
He said that the reports furnished by different institutions are now available and more are going to be received soon.
He maintained that these should be enough to conclude the investigations and reach possible reasons for these deaths reported from this particular village.
Dulloo also took this occasion to hear from the different experts from PGIMER (Chandigarh), NIV, CSIR and NCDC about their findings after studying numerous samples taken from the affected persons of the area.
He also sought suggestions from them about the future course of action.
It was given out by these experts that after carrying out extensive microbiological studies, no viral, bacterial or microbial infection was found which could be the cause of these deaths.
These findings were found to be localised and possibly having some epidemiological linkage.
The authorities have taken several measures including rushing of Rapid Response Teams, carrying out investigations of samples from humans and animals, testing of water besides taking assistance of reputed health institutions of the country to know about the actual causes behind these deaths.
Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Sharma is personally monitoring the situation to ensure timely intervention and mitigation.
Aggressive contact tracing and sampling by the Health Department teams was carried out.
More than 272 samples were taken to identify and address potential health risks.
It is pertinent to mention that food and water samples have already been collected to ascertain the quality and safety of essential supplies in the region.
A dedicated team of the Health Department, led by Dr Rakesh Mangotra, Director Health, Jammu, and accompanied by Dr Manohar Rana, Chief Medical Officer Rajouri, is camping at Kandi Kotranka to oversee the operations.
The administration has also stationed a mobile medical unit and ambulance on standby to address any emergent medical needs. - The Statesman/ANN
