No viral, bacterial or microbial causes in Rajouri’s ‘mystery illness’, say health experts

The meeting was attended by officials of Rajouri’s civil and police administration and health experts from several national health institutions. This comes as authorities scramble to identify a “mystery illness” that has killed 13 – 11 of them children – since December 7.

According to authorities, all those who died were related to each other.

“These (the deaths) were found to be localised and possibly having some epidemiological linkage,’’ an official spokesperson said. “It was also given out that certain neurotoxins were found in the samples of the deceased persons, which is further investigated to know more about it.”

The chief secretary “impressed upon the health and police departments to assess the reports received from various institutions to identify the cause of the death and work in close coordination to take this investigation to its logical conclusion”, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, teams from the health department have started conducting aggressive contact tracing and sampling in the village for potential health risks, sources said.

“The department has already collected food and water samples to determine the quality and safety of essential supplies in the region. The administration has also stationed a mobile medical unit and ambulance on standby to address any emergent medical needs,” a source said.

Health and Medical Education Minister Sakina Itoo too ruled out viral infection or disease, saying that the 3,500 samples collected by the health department over the past month and sent to various health institutions across the country for examination have come out “negative”.

“It’s now a matter of investigation for the district administration and the police to find out the causes of death of 13 people,” she said.