J&K: Rajouri’s Badhal village declared ‘containment zone’ amid unidentified illness

In view of the ‘unidentified illness’ in Rajouri’s Badhal village, the village has been declared a containment zone, and the affected families’ homes sealed; a few patients brought to Government Medical College (GMC) in Rajouri on Thursday.

Principal GMC Rajouri. Amarjeet Singh Bhatia assured government efforts to stop the rising death toll, citing no evidence of viral infection as healthcare workers remain unaffected after 1.5 months.

“The steps that we are taking which include containment, people being shifted to medical college, this shows that our govt, administration, MLA are sincerely putting efforts to stop the Death toll from rising further…there is no proof to say that this a virus as health care workers are staying there for 1.5 months but no one has fallen ill…evidence suggests that we don’t have to be scared but since we are fighting an invisible enemy, we need to take all the steps…this is not a quarantine, we are just shifting patients to a different place..,” he said.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has launched an investigation into the unexplained deaths, with the assistance of health institutions across the country. The Rapid Response Teams have been deployed and also water sources have been tested.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Union Minister Jitendra Singh also stated that initial tests conducted by a toxicology laboratory in Lucknow under CSIR indicated the absence of any infection, virus, or bacteria.

Earlier, JK Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited Rajouri’s Badhal and assured citizens affected by the disease.

CM Abdullah told reporters, “The day when we got the information, the health department along with other departments have been working to understand the causes behind such incidents… Tests were done, and we concluded that there were no bacteria or viruses that caused those deaths.”

“Later, we found that all those deaths happened in three families,” he added. He said that the authorities are yet to ascertain the cause behind these deaths.

“But, we are yet to find the reason behind 17 deaths… Since it’s not a disease, police are also involved in it and they have formed a team to investigate the matter. Central govt team is also there and we together will look into the incidents to find the reason behind all these deaths….” CM Omar Abdullah added.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also ordered the constitution of an inter-ministerial team led by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to investigate the causes of unexplained deaths in three incidents reported over the past six weeks.