Rajouri deaths not caused by any disease: Health Minister

A day after experts told the J&K Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo that certain neurotoxins were found in the samples of those who died in Badhaal village of Rajouri over the past one month, Health Minister Sakina Masood Itoo on Wednesday said the deaths were not due to any disease.

Advertisement

The Minister said the police and district administration would hold investigation to ascertain the reason behind the deaths. “These were not caused by any disease, including virus,” she said.

Fourteen people — 11 minors and three adults — died in the village. One of them was a pregnant women who allegedly died due to medical negligence.

The Health Minister said, “When the initial deaths were reported (early December), Health Department teams went to the village and collected 3,500 samples. Different tests were conducted on these samples, but they turned out to be negative.” She said after a while, three more people died, following which experts were called from outside to examine the cause.

She said now after a gap of 40 days, five more deaths were reported. “If there was a disease, it would have spread in the village. Deaths occurred only in three families that are inter-linked. All the tests, be it food or water, came out negative. Even the influenza tests were negative. National institutions also conducted tests which also did not reveal anything,” she told mediapersons.

On the other hand, in a meeting with experts from national health institutions on Tuesday, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo took stock of the measures taken so far to ascertain the real reason behind the mysterious deaths. Experts from PGIMER, CSIR, National Institute of Virology (NIV), National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), DRDO and others were present.

Dulloo urged the Health Department to study reports to find the reasonable leads causing these deaths.

The experts had said that after carrying out extensive microbiological studies, no viral, bacterial or microbial infection was found to cause these deaths.

Meanwhile, Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Sharma visited the village and took stock of the samples collected for testing, including food, water and other consumables. He directed the departments concerned to expedite the analysis and implement necessary measures to prevent any further occurrences.