CS chairs high level meeting, another team arrives
*Experts indicate ‘neurotoxins’ found in samples
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Jan 14: With the death of 4th child of Mohd Aslam, hailing from Badhaal village in district Rajouri at GMC Jammu today, the death toll due to some ‘mysterious disease’ in Kotranka Sub Division of Rajouri district has reached 14, while the en-mass burial of three children and Aslam’s uncle was held at their home village, where the major “health crisis’ has erupted.
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Medical Superintendent of SMGS Hoaspital, an associated hospital of GMC Jammu, Dr Dara Singh said that the fourth child, a 6- years-old Safina Kouser, daughter of Mohd Aslam, hailing from Badhaal village in Rajouri passed away in the ICU of the hospital at around 3.35 pm on Tuesday. He said the condition of remaining two patients- both sisters, Yasmeen (15) and Zabina (10) is unstable. They have been kept under observation but younger one is little serious.
In view of massive health crisis in the Rajouri village, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo today chaired a high level meeting of the top Health officials and Medical experts. He asked the Medical teams to intensify their efforts and reach up to some conclusion.
The Medical Superintendent of SMGS hospital informed that a team of experts from NCDC Delhi and IoE, Chennai arrived here today. The team visited SMGS hospital and interacted with these sick children. The team later left for Rajouri.
Meanwhile, the en-mass burial of three children of Mohd Aslam and relative Mohd Yousuf was held at their native village, Badhaal today. A large number of people from all walks of life attended the burial.
District Administration Rajouri led by Deputy Commissioner, Abhishek Sharma and accompanied by Additional SP, Addl DC Raj Kumar Thappa and others also joined. The people are now more scared with the fresh death of an elderly person- Mohd Yousuf late last evening at GMC Rajouri.
Every one in the funeral was in tears when they saw the bodies of three children-Zahoor Ahmed-14 yrs, Mohd Maroof 10 yrs and Naveena- 8 yrs wrapped in the coffin. The family lost their fourth child today, while two others are struggling for life in the GMC Jammu.
Details complied from Health authorities in Rajouri revealed that first incident in Badhaal village of Khawas area in Kandi was reported on Dec 7, 2024, wherein, 38-years- old-Fzal Hussain, son of Nazam Din and his four other family members/children died. They included- Rabina Kouser-15 yrs, Ruksar Ahmed-12 yrs, Farhana Kouser-10 yrs and Rafaqat Ahmed-4 Yrs-all the children of Fazal. His wife Shamim Akhtar (35) was also hospitalized in GMC Rajouri but discharged later.
The second spree of deaths started on December 12 wherein three children of Mohd Rafiq and his wife Razia Begum (35) died. While his two children Nazia-7 yrs and Ishtiaq 9 years died on Dec 12, his third child Mohd Ishfaq-10 yrs was referred to PGI Chandigarh from SMGS on December 12 but passed away on Dec 18 there. Rafiq’s wife, Razia Begum, however, passed away on Dec 23. So, nine deaths took place in the month of December as per Medical record with Rajouri administration.
The third incident took place on January 12, 2025. While Mohd Aslam’s two children Zahoor-14 and Naveena-08 yrs passed away on the same day, third child- Maroof -10 yrs passed away on Jan 13 in GMC Jammu and fourth child Safina Kouser- 6 yrs on Jan 14, at GMC Jammu. The 14th victim is Mohd Yousuf (62), maternal uncle of Mohd Aslam, who passed away at GMC Rajouri on late Monday evening.
Two children Yasmeena (15) and Zabina (10), daughters of Mohd Aslam are struggling for life in the ICU of GMC Jammu.
A senior Health official said that a joint team of experts from NCDC Delhi and Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai has reached Jammu. They visited ailing children at GMC Jammu. They will move to Badhaal village in Rajouri tomorrow morning where the tragedy struck. They will assess the situation and try to find out the cause behind these deaths.
While responding to a question, he said several teams have visited the village so far. Only three families, which are related to each other are affected. He, however, claimed that possibility of `some mischief’ can not be ruled out.
Referring to this fresh incident, the official, said six children of Mohammad Aslam, hailing from Badhaal village of Khawas area were brought to Community Health Centre Kandi (Kotranka) for medical check-up on Saturday evening. They had the symptoms like fever, sweating, vomiting, dehydration, episodic loss of consciousness etc. The children were initially referred to the GMC, Rajouri and later four of them were shifted to SMGS Hospital (GMC) Jammu where the girl, Naveena Kouser (8 yrs) breathed her last at 1.05 pm on Sunday and her brother, Zahoor Ahmed (14 yrs) at around 7.50 pm in the evening. Third one passed away on Monday and fourth on Tuesday besides one elderly relative last evening.
He said various teams of experts from Pune’s National Institute of Virology, PGI Chandigarh, AIIMS Delhi and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi, had also visited the village to assist in the investigations. Another Central team has arrived again, but no conclusion could be drawn so far. While a special police team has also started investigation to probe any mischief angle.
In response to the alarming situation in Badhal, where 14 individuals have lost their lives, Principal of Government Medical College (GMC) Rajouri, Dr AS Bhatia, deputed a team from the Department of Microbiology, under the supervision of the Head of the Department of Community Medicine, Dr Suja Qadri. The team is actively collecting samples from contacts and other residents to conduct microbiological testing, aiming to identify the root cause of the illness. The team has intensified its efforts in the area, conducting extensive fieldwork. Today more than 270 samples were collected for analysis to assess potential health risks and address the situation.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today chaired a meeting of all the 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 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 also directed the Police Department to utilize the best of their resources to study these reports along with using other scientific measures to reach to the conclusion. He also urged the Health Department to study these reports to find the reasonable leads causing these deaths.
Dulloo said the reports furnished by different institutions are now available with us and more are going to be received soon. He maintained that these should be enough to conclude the investigations and reach to possible reasons of these deaths reported from this particular village.
He 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 or area.
It was given out by these experts that after carrying out of extensive microbiological studies no viral, bacterial or microbial infection was found to cause these deaths. These were found to be localised and possibly having some epidemiological linkage. They added that certain neurotoxins were found in the samples of the deceased persons which is further investigated to know more about it.