Rajouri: 16-year old taken ill, 350 villagers quarantined so far
16 patients have died and 15 have fallen ill so far; three sisters in Jammu Government Medical College and a youth in PGIMER, Chandigarh, have shown signs of improvement, say officials
While another 16-year-old girl was taken ill and shifted to the Government Medical College (GMC), Rajouri, on Friday, the Jammu and Kashmir government has so far quarantined 350 villagers of Badhaal village in three government facilities of the district.
At the same time, three sisters, who were airlifted to Jammu on Wednesday, have showed signs of improvement. Another 25-year-old youth, Aijaz Ahmed, undergoing treatment at the PGIMER, Chandigarh, is also responding to the treatment. With the hospitalisation of the 16-year-old girl, the number of patients with illness symptoms has now gone up to 15 out of whom14 are stable.
Eleven are admitted in GMC, Rajouri, three sisters in Jammu’s GMC and SMGS Hospital and one at the PGIMER in Chandigarh. The unexplained disease has so far claimed 16 lives, including 13 children, since December 7 last year.
Dr Shamim Choudhary, GMC’s medical superintendent, said, “A 16-year-old girl with symptoms of vomiting and fever has been hospitalised. We have a total of 11 patients. Two of them are kept under strict observation. While one has improved, the other one is still under observation.”
As many as 46 kin of the three inter-related affected families have already been kept under observation at the GMC. Kotranka’s additional district commissioner Dil Mir Choudhary said the administration till Thursday night had shifted 350 people from Badhaal village to government nursing college and a government higher secondary school in Rajouri to break the food chain and protect the people from mysterious illness.
Regarding three sisters, Jammu GMC principal Dr Ashutosh Gupta said, “The eldest one (Tazeem, 23) was shifted from the ICU to a ward on Friday following improvement in her condition. Her younger sister (Khalida) has been removed from the ventilator at SMGS Hospital.”
Tazeem Akhter, 23, Khalida Begum, 18, and Nazia Kouser, 16, daughters of Bagh Hussain, were airlifted from Rajouri to Jammu GMC on Wednesday. Khalida Begum and Tazeem Akheter were in critical condition on the day they were airlifted to Jammu.
After tests by CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, found some neurotoxins, especially aldicarb and cadmium, in the samples of those affected with the mysterious illness, the government has initiated these measures to break the food chain, said a senior health official.
However, no conclusive evidence about what caused deaths is yet available to us, he added.
“The quarantined villagers are being provided food and water under the surveillance of the government. At the same time, we still dont have any conclusive report with us which can pinpoint the root cause of 16 deaths,” he said.
Aijaz Ahmed, 25, who is being treated at the PGIMER in Chandigarh, has gained consciousness and has started responding to the treatment.
Meanwhile, the government’s health department has provided five child specialists and five anaesthesia specialists to the Rajouri GMC. Rajouri GMC principal Dr AS Bhatia confirmed that all types of advanced technology are in place to handle any contingency. Additionally, advanced care ambulances have been kept at a stand-by at the hospital.
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