Unexplained deaths: Rajouri village declared containment zone

Rajouri: The remote Badhaal village in Rajouri district was on Wednesday declared a containment zone and prohibitory orders imposed on all public and private gatherings in the wake of the death of 17 people belonging to three families, officials said.Another person belonging to the village has been admitted to a hospital in a critical condition, they said.The containment orders have been imposed under section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). Section 163 of BNSS gives magistrates the power to issue written orders in urgent situations. These orders can be used to prevent or remedy nuisance or dangers.

According to the order issued by additional district magistrate (Rajouri) Rajeev Kumar Khajuria, the village has been divided into three containment zones – the first covering all families where deaths have occurred.“The houses of these affected families shall be sealed and entry will be totally restricted for all individuals, including their family members, unless otherwise authorized by the designated officers/officials.”In the containment zone 2, the order said the members of all families identified as close contacts of affected individuals be shifted to Government Medical College, Rajouri for continuous health monitoring which is mandatory.

All households will be covered under the containment zone-3 and staff will be deployed to ensure the continuous monitoring of food consumption, deployment of police personnel to enforce compliance and deployment of designated officers for maintenance of log books, the order said.“All public and private gatherings are hereby prohibited within the jurisdiction of these containment zones, in order to prevent further spread of the infection,” the order said.It said the designated officials shall be responsible for monitoring all meals provided to families in containment zones.

“It is mandatory for affected families and their close contacts to consume only the food and water provided by the administration. Any other food items available in the households are strictly prohibited for consumption,” the order said.It ordered immediate replacement of all food and water supplies, and seizure of all edible materials in the infected households.The fresh steps were taken after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited the village on Tuesday.

Seventeen persons belonging to three families linked to each other have died under suspicious circumstances in the village between December 7 and January 19.A 24-year-old man identified as Aijaz Ahmad was hospitalised on Tuesday evening after his health deteriorated.Four people, including three sisters, have been shifted to hospitals from Badhaal village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district where a mysterious illness has claimed 17 lives over the past one-and-a-half months.

A central team continued its investigation into the cause of the deaths, which took place in three families, on Wednesday. A senior doctor part of the investigations said over 200 samples have been sent for testing to different institutes.Three sisters, aged between 16 and 22, were shifted to the Government Medical College (GMC), Rajouri from Badhaal after their health suddenly deteriorated on Wednesday. Another critically ill patient, Javid Ahmad (24), was referred to PGI Chandigarh from GMC Rajouri on Tuesday evening, the officials said.

All four are close relatives of the three families that lost their members to the mysterious illness, they said.Meanwhile, the inter-ministerial team from New Delhi visited Badhaal in Kotranka sub-division for the third straight day as part of its investigation, the officials said.The team headed by a director-rank officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs reached Rajouri district headquarters on Sunday evening and was briefed by senior district, health and police officers. It is camping in Rajouri town.

Senior epidemiologist and head of Community Medicines Department, GMC Rajouri, Shuja Qadri said all the investigations so far make it clear that the deaths in the village were not the result of any communicable disease. So, the probe has been narrowed down to the identification of the toxin in food items.”Based on our epidemiological investigation, as of now, we have reached some probable conclusions, which will be confirmed by lab diagnosis… it is something which is connected with food,” Qadri, who is part of the investigations, told.

More than 200 food samples have been sent for screening to various institutes across the country to isolate the neurotoxin. 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”.”If you see the sequence of cases, they came over a period of time. That means it is something which is coming intermittently. They are consumed either accidentally or deliberately. That is again a question of investigation,” he said.

The 17 deaths in Badhaal, about 55 km from Rajouri town, took place between December 7 and January 19.The patients complained of fever, pain, nausea, intense sweating and loss of consciousness before dying within days of admission to hospitals.Earlier, a Jammu and Kashmir government spokesperson said investigations and samples empirically indicated that the incidents were not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle.

Police have also set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) after certain neurotoxins were found in the samples of the deceased.National Conference (NC) leader and local MLA Javaid Iqbal Choudhary said the situation in the village is tough but all necessary measures are in place to deal with it.”The fresh cases have deepened the mystery and we are hopeful that the investigations by both local and central agencies will reach a conclusion soon,” he said.According to Choudhary, the four new patients were airlifted to hospitals by the Indian Air Force (IAF).Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar and Additional Director General of Police, Jammu, Anand Jain have also reached Kotranka to review the situation.