Badhal mysterious deaths; 32 more individuals sent back from GMC Rajouri

Shyam Sood
Rajouri, February 15: Not officially declared but sources said that out of 50 individuals, who are members of victim’s families and close contacts of 17 people who died due to unknown illness, 32 have been sent back to village Badhal from Associated Hospital Government Medical College (AH GMC) in the GMC bus.
Earlier, on February 13, the district administration had allowed 330 individuals of 62 families to return to Badhal area after 22 days of stay at lodgement centers (quarantined) at Nursing College and Government Boys Model Higher secondary school (GBMHSS) at Rajouri.
It is pertinent to mention here that after 17 deaths due to unidentified illness- including 13 children in three families of Fazal Hussain (who also died along with 3 children), Mohd Aslam (6 children & maternal uncle & aunt died) and Mohd Rafiq ( 4 children & wife died)-Rajouri administration declared Badhal as a containment zone & shifted about 384 individuals to lodgement centers for their safety and immediate treatment. About 50 members of families of late Fazal Hussain, Mohd Aslam, Mohd Rafiq and their close contacts (including relatives/neighbors) were put under constant surveillance at AH GMC in special established wards.
These quarantined villagers were provided free food, water, medical facilities etc free of cost by the administration at these centers under the overall supervision of DC, Abhishek Sharma.
Several high-level teams of experts, including Inter-Ministerial team ( from Home Ministry), National Institute of Virology (NIV), PGIMER Chandigarh, team of experts from AIIMS Delhi headed by its Director, visited Badhal and collected samples to find the cause and source of deaths but no result has come out yet.
On the recommendation and guidelines of experts from AIIMS New Delhi, Rajouri administration decided to return these families (after 21 days of quarantine) in a phased manner after checking by the doctors.
At present about 32 members of the victim’s families are left behind in AHGMC Rajouri including Mohd Aslam, his sister and close relatives, wife, daughter and son-in-law of late Fazal Hussain and his parents and their children.
As the cause of these 17 deaths is yet not cleared, health authorities are confused over the follow-up treatment and protocol to be followed for these villagers.
The police have been tasked to investigate the incident and accordingly a SIT was constituted, and the report of the SIT is still awaited.
Administration has also collected 529 samples of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and fertilisers from different shops/ stores for examination in the labs.
Earlier the doctors at GMC Rajouri, GMC Jammu and PGIMER Chandigarh had treated patients by injecting atropine, an anti-poison drug.