350 Badhaal residents to remain in quarantine till mid-February

The 350 residents and close contacts of the families whose 17 members died in Badhaal village of Rajouri due to unexplained reasons will remain in quarantine till mid-February.

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The locals were brought to GMC Rajouri, a local nursing college and a government school where they have been kept under strict supervision of the district administration. The intake of their food and water is also being monitored.

Sources informed that these people would remain in isolation for a period of 21 days since the day they were brought to the isolation facilities set up by the government. These people were shifted to the isolation facilities on January 24 after the experts were not able to detect any reasons behind the deaths and illness among many other villagers.

All the 17 deceased belonged to three families of the village who were affected due to the alleged toxins. After the samples were tested by experts from different institutions of national repute, it was found that there was presence of certain toxins that might have affected the nervous system of the deceased. However, no confirmation has so far been issued by the government.

A doctor informed that these 350 people were put in isolation to break the food chain so that if there was a toxin in their food, water or any other source, its effect could be mitigated. The doctor informed that no new case of illness has been reported from Badhaal village and that was a positive sign.

Health Minister Sakina Itoo, while interacting with mediapersons during an event, said, “I have talked about Rajouri many times. It has been found that there is no disease or virus behind the 17 deaths and an investigation is ongoing. However, all persons undergoing treatment are stable and have recovered from the illness.”

Principal of GMC Rajouri, AS Bhatia, said that the dose of Atropine brought positive results after which no deaths were reported. “However, Atropine was never used as an antidote but only to undo some of the symptoms like low heart rate among the patients. As per data, Atropine has been effective,” he said.