SRI NAGAR: Even as mystery continues to shroud 17 deaths due to unknown illness in Badhal village of J&K’s Rajouri district, the administration has allowed all the 62 families, who were in quarantine for 22 days, to return to their village.
An official said 62 families comprising 330 individuals including 152 males and 178 females returned back to their homes at Badhal village after 22 day long stay at lodgment (quarantine) centres established at BHSS and Nursing College in Rajouri.
After 17 persons including 13 children and 4 adults died in over a month due to mysterious illnesses in the Badhal village, the administration declared the village as a containment zone and shifted the population of the village to lodgement centres in Rajouri for quarantine.
They were provided and food and water by the administration.
However, the cause of the 17 deaths in the village still remains a mystery.
The experts of national health agencies including National Institute of Virology (NIV), DRD Gawalior, PGI Chandigarh and AIIMS New Delhi have visited the affected village and collected samples but no result has come out yet.
A doctor said it is over two months since the first deaths took place in the village and yet we do not know what caused the mysterious illness.
The experts should have investigated samples on priority and case results should have come by now.
He said without knowing the cause of illness, how doctors are going to treat the patients.
“We don't have any follow-up treatment or protocol for such patients,” he said.
The district administration has collected 529 samples of insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers from across the district in connection with the ongoing investigation into a mysterious illness, the officials said.
“These samples have been sent for testing and its results may play a crucial role in investigation,” they said.
The doctors at GMC Rajouri successfully treated 11 patients affected with mysterious illnesses through the anti-poison drug atropine, which is used to treat the organophosphorus group of poisons.
The atropine was also used to treat the patients in GMC Jammu and PGI Chandigarh.
As health agencies and experts have failed to come out with a reason for the mysterious illness yet, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by police is continuing its probe.
However, the SIT too is yet to come out with any conclusion on the deaths.