SRINAGAR: Thirteen persons including 10 children have died of a mysterious disease in Badhaal village of the border district of Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir. The Health department is conducting aggressive contact tracing and sampling in the village to ascertain the cause of the mysterious disease.In the fresh death, an elderly person identified as Mohammad Yousuf died of the mysterious disease yesterday evening.Earlier, on Monday morning 10-year-old boy Mohammad Maroof son of Mohammad Aslam died of disease. Alsam has also lost two more children Zahoor Ahmed, 14 yrs, and Nabeena Akhtar, 5 yrs, to a mysterious illness on Sunday.On December 7, 2024, five members of a family died due to a mysterious disease, while on December 12, 2024, three children died of the same symptoms including fever, sweating, vomiting, dehydration and episodic loss of consciousness.Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Rajouri, Dr Manohar Lal told TNIE that aggressive testing and surveillance are going on in the village to identify and address potential health risks.He added that the mysterious illness has so far been confined to three families in the village. The affected individuals had consumed some food before falling ill.Manohar further added the village had a population of 5700 people and we have conducted over 12000 tests. We are conducting repeated tests and surveillance is going on at the ground level.Lal said that the post-mortem of the deceased and the FSL reports are awaited. He added that during testing in the village, no virology was found, and the water was also confirmed to be clean. Currently, three children are undergoing treatment at SMGS Hospital in Jammu. Meanwhile, a team from the health department is stationed in the village. The team is led by Dr. Rajesh Mangotra, Director of Health Services Jammu, along with several doctors from the department and medical college. They have already conducted necessary medical screenings, contact tracing, and collected samples.Food and water samples have been gathered to assess the quality and safety of essential supplies in the region. The administration has also deployed a mobile medical unit and an ambulance on standby to address any emergency medical needs.Officials confirmed that two more teams of experts from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi and the Institute of Epidemiology in Chennai are visiting the affected village to assess the situation and determine the cause of the illness.
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