 "Security personnel at a containment zone after the outbreak of a mysterious illness, in Rajouri district, Jammu and Kashmir, Wednesday, January 22, 2025. PTI")
Mystery around more than a dozen deaths in three families in a far-flung village, Badhal, in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir continues.
Over 200 individuals who came into contact with the affected families have been quarantined, and the district administration has ordered three “containment zones” and sealed the area.
As the investigation continues, top health officials have ruled out an infectious pathogen as the cause of the mysterious disease that claimed the lives of 17 people over the past month.
The mysterious deaths in Jammu and Kashmir
Over the past month, a mysterious illness has killed over 17 people in Rajouri .
Three related families accounted for the majority of the deaths; between December 7 and December 12, nine members of two families perished.
The first victim of the mysterious illness died on December 7 after first exhibiting fever, vomiting, stomach pain, and periodic unconsciousness.
Fazal Hussain fell ill after attending a community meal during his daughter’s wedding. Four additional family members, including children ages five to 14 also died within days.
Three of Mohammad Rafiq’s family’s children passed away on December 12, marking the second wave of fatalities.
The third cluster, which involved the family of Muhammad Aslam, started on January 12 and ended on Sunday with the murder of 16-year-old Yasmeen Kousar.
Investigation launched
To look into the mysterious fatalities, Union Minister Amit Shah sent a high-level interministerial committee.
The team, which is looking into the cause, arrived in Rajouri on Sunday night and comprises experts from the ministries of water resources, chemicals, agriculture, and health.
The UT administration has cordoned off the area and established three “containment zones” to stop a possible “infection” from spreading.
According to the Indian Express, the administration also provides water packs and food items three times a day.
The district administration has also prohibited all public and private gatherings within the containment zones.
Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited Baddal to assure residents that the Rajouri civil administration was “actively addressing the matter.”
Cause of deaths
What has caused the deaths is still unclear.
However, the preliminary probe also points to unidentified toxins as the likely culprit, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.
“As per preliminary investigation conducted by the CSIR lab in Lucknow, it is not any infection, viral or bacterial in nature. Toxins have been found. Now, investigation is underway to ascertain what kind of toxin it is,” Singh told reporters.
The matter is being probed from all angles, and if any conspiracy is found, appropriate action will be taken, the minister assured.
Some neurotoxins were discovered in the victims based on the experts’ examinations and investigation. But no bacterial or viral infection has been found. Sweating and fever were the affected individuals’ symptoms.
A group of compounds known as neurotoxins, which vary in their nature, interfere with the central and peripheral nervous systems’ ability to operate in a number of ways.
Authorities sealed a water reservoir known locally as “baoli” earlier this week after springtime samples revealed the presence of pesticides and insecticides.
Experts from top medical institutions, including the Indian Institute of Virology, Pune, PGI Chandigarh, and AIIMS Delhi, have already visited the affected village in Rajouri and collected samples.
Dr Shuja Qadri, senior epidemiologist and head of the Community Medicines Department at GMC Rajouri, said the deaths in the village were not the result of any communicable disease, and the probe has been narrowed down to the identification of the toxin in food items. More than 200 food samples have been sent to institutes nationwide for screening.
“Hopefully, based on the panel of toxins, the laboratories will be in a position to isolate the toxin within a week or 10 days, and we can easily take the control measures to prevent further deaths,” Qadri told PTI.
No public health threat
Residents of the remote village, which is primarily home to Scheduled Tribe people, has become a place of fear and mourning.
They have ceased organising community gatherings and refused to consume food that was made outside of their houses.
The UT administration, however, has dismissed a possible public health emergency by claiming that there is no evidence of a communicable disease with a bacterial or viral cause.
Police have also formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) after neurotoxins were detected in samples from the deceased. It is investigating the criminal conspiracy angle in the case.
CM Abdullah also assured the villagers, “All the tests were conducted and the results revealed that there are no bacteria or viruses.”
With inputs from agencies