Rajouri/Jammu, Jan 14: The death toll due to an unidentified disease in a remote village of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir has escalated to 14, with two more family members, including a six-year-old girl, succumbing to the illness, officials reported on Tuesday.
In the last 30 days, the 14 fatalities, comprising 11 children and three adults from three families, have instilled fear among the inhabitants of Badhaal village in Koteranka Sub-division. Health teams have been deployed by the government to gather samples for identifying and addressing potential health threats, officials said.
They reported that Safina Kousar passed away in a Jammu hospital, where three of her siblings died over the last two days, while two others continue to fight for their lives.
The children’s grandfather, Mohd Rafiq, also succumbed in a Rajouri hospital on Monday, the officials stated.
Last month, nine individuals from two families lost their lives in the village. Initially, the deaths were linked to suspected food poisoning. However, the situation worsened as most villagers began to exhibit similar symptoms, leading to government intervention and the rapid arrival of experts from various renowned health institutions across the nation.
Dr. Ashutosh Gupta, the principal of Government Medical College Hospital, Jammu, mentioned last month that preliminary investigations suggested a viral infection as the cause of the mysterious deaths. He emphasized the necessity for further studies to arrive at a definitive conclusion.
Experts from Pune’s National Institute of Virology, PGI Chandigarh, AIIMS Delhi, and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi, have visited the village to aid in the investigations.
Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Sharma is personally overseeing the situation to ensure prompt intervention and mitigation, officials said, adding that the Health Department teams are actively conducting contact tracing and sampling.
Food and water quality samples have already been gathered to determine the safety of essential supplies in the area.
A dedicated team from the Health Department, led by Jammu Health Director Dr. Rakesh Mangotra and Rajouri Chief Medical Officer Dr. Manohar Rana, is stationed at Kandi Kotranka to supervise the operations.
The administration has also set up a mobile medical unit and ambulance on standby to handle any urgent medical needs.
The district administration remains dedicated to the safety and well-being of the residents, urging the public to cooperate with health officials during ongoing surveillance and interventions, an official stated.
For any health-related inquiries, the public is encouraged to contact the district control room or local health authorities.
