Rajouri deaths remain a mystery; admn urges AIIMS-Delhi to train doctors
Even as two months have passed when the first deaths were reported in Badhaal village of Rajouri due to unexplained reasons, there has been no conclusive evidence about the cause behind the fatalities. The experts have so far only been able to detect presence of toxins in the samples but there is no conclusive report if these were responsible for the deaths.
During a high-level meeting, Secretary of Health and Medical Education Dr Syed Abid Rashid Shah informed Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo that out of the 55 symptomatic persons, 38 were discharged after recovery and 17 deaths had been registered so far. He stated that there are currently no admissions in any of the hospitals and patients had even been examined by teams of doctors from PGIMER, Chandigarh, and AIIMS, New Delhi.
Also present at the meeting were Director, AIIMS; Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh; DG, ICMR; Director, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR), Lucknow; Director, CFSL; Experts from National Institute of Virology (NIV), DRD, Gawalior, and experts from other reputed laboratories carrying out investigation of the samples sent by the Health Department. Senior officials from J&K were also present.
The Health Secretary informed the meeting that every measure has been taken to isolate the families and provide them food and water after testing the same.
Health teams are stationed at the village to keep surveillance for any of the symptoms appearing in any person with whole population of the village screened by healthcare providers.
At present, 363 individuals from 60 different families are under quarantine with 592 animals being tended by the officials from Animal and Sheep Husbandry Departments.
Addressing the officials, Dulloo asked for augmentation of facilities in the local hospitals so that these are well equipped to deal with any such eventuality in future. He directed for carrying out audit of the health facilities to examine the need of adding more ICU beds, oxygen plants, isolation wards in addition to availability of specific drugs and specialists there.
The Chief Secretary also urged the AIIMS, New Delhi, to extend their support in enhancing the capacity of the local medics here for dealing with such situations. He also suggested for sending some doctors to Delhi for specialised training and also sending some experts from there to build capacity of many more here at the UT hospitals.
Meanwhile, the teams constituted by Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Sharma collected 529 samples of insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers from across the district in connection with the ongoing investigation.
A total of 257 shops were identified for sampling, including 60 selling insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides, besides other 194 selling fertilisers. Out of these, 254 shops were subjected to rigorous sample collection. These samples will be sent for testing, the results of which may play a crucial role in the investigation related to Badhaal village.
