CS reviews admin efforts towards safeguarding Badhal residents
RAJOURI: Villagers, who have been housed in one of the isolation facilities following the death of 17 people due to an unexplained illness in Badhaal village of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, on Thursday held protest demanding they be allowed to return to their hamlet.
The protesters said while 17 people from their village have lost their lives, authorities are yet to determine the cause of these deaths. Instead, hundreds of villagers have been placed in isolation facilities.
They further expressed concern over their livestock and household belongings left behind, stating their animals were on the verge of death due to a lack of care.
Following the protest, senior administrative officers rushed to the spot and are currently holding discussions with the villagers.
The residents of this remote border village were moved to isolation facilities 12 days ago as a precautionary measure after the unexplained deaths.
Despite extensive investigations by police and medical experts, the cause of these deaths remains unknown.
With suspicions of a neurotoxin contaminating the local food chain, authorities decided to relocate affected families and their immediate contacts to quarantine facilities. Three such facilities have been set up at the district headquarters in Rajouri, they added.
As part of a major late-night action in the border district, authorities launched surprise inspections of all insecticide, pesticide, and fertilizer stores, leading to the closure of all such establishments until further notice, officials said.
Eleven patients, who were admitted to the Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital after falling ill due to the mysterious illness, have fully recovered and were discharged on Monday, officials said.
A team of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, concluded a three-day visit to Rajouri, where they examined patients from Badhaal village and collected various samples as part of their investigation from Friday to Sunday.
During their visit, the five-member AIIMS team, including toxicology specialists, conducted interviews and recorded clinical histories of the 11 patients undergoing treatment for the mysterious illness.
Sources said doctors at GMC Rajouri administered atropine, an anti-poison drug, to the affected patients. Badhaal village remains under containment, with 79 families still in isolation as a precautionary measure.
Eight teams of government officials are taking care of over 700 livestock in the village, ensuring food, water, and medical attention for the animals.
To safeguard the remaining 808 households, comprising 3,700 individuals, the village has been divided into 14 clusters, each monitored by multi-departmental teams comprising 182 officials, authorities said.
Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo today again chaired a meeting of all the concerned from Health and Police Departments along with the representatives of nationally reputed institutions to take assessment of the efforts made to safeguard the lives there besides identifying the causes behind these deaths.
The meeting besides Principal Secretary, Home and Secretary, H&ME was attended by ADGP, CID; Divisional Commissioner, Jammu; IGP, Jammu; IGP, CID; DC, Rajouri; SSP, Rajouri; Principal, GMC Jammu and other local health experts.
It was also joined by 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.
Dulloo took this occasion to impress upon the concerned not to lower their guard and take samples of fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides used locally to identify the root cause of these deaths. He also 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 there for specialized training and also sending some experts from there to build capacity of many more here in the hospitals of the UT.
