Badhal Incident: PGIMET team collects samples to investigate unidentified illness that claimed 17 lives.

GNS ONLINE NEWS PORTAL 

SHYAM SOOD

**Led by Director, 6 members’ AIIMS Delhi team reached Rajouri to investigate unidentified illness.

**AIIMS team to visit Badhal on Sunday

RAJOURI FEB 02:-Following 17 deaths due to mysterious illness in Badhal area of Rajouri district-between December 7 and January 19-several high-level central teams of experts, including inter-ministerial team established by Home Minister, continue to visit the affected families, GMC Rajouri and Badhal area to investigate the circumstances, cause of deaths and to prepare a final report about the cause behind these deaths.
A three-member team from PGIMER led by Dr Kapil Goyal (Community Medicine) is presently camping at Rajouri and on Saturday visited village Badhal.
Meanwhile, another 6-member team from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi led by Director AIIMS, Prof. M Srinivas also reached Rajouri on Saturday evening.
Other members of AIIMS team include Prof. A Shariff ( HoD of Anatomy); Dr Shailendra Kumar (Deptt of Anaesthesiology), Dr Jagdish Prashad Meena ( Deptt of Paediatrics), Dr Nayer Jamshed (Addi. Prof. Deptt of Emergency Medicines), and Dr Javed Quadri (AP Deptt of Anatomy).
Sources said the AIIMS team met with Principal GMC, expert committee members and interacted with patients undergoing treatment and family members of those who died due to unidentified illness.
The AIIMS team on Sunday will visit the Badhal area to examine the environment, the quality of food items people consume, their way of living etc.
The PGIMET team today visited Badhal village to investigate the cause of deaths.
Team members, accompanied by DIG Police, Rajouri-Poonch Range; SSP Rajouri and senior health officers from Rajouri, opened the sealed house of Mohd Aslam and collected samples of the items stored in the house, including utensils, eatables etc.
It is pertinent to mention here that 8 members of Mohd Aslam’s family, including his four daughters, two sons, maternal uncle & aunt died due to unidentified illness between January 12 & 19.
Mohd Aslam was adopted by his maternal uncle Mohd Yousuf (62). Mohd Aslam, his wife and other close relatives are presently under observation in a lodgement center in GMC hospital in Rajouri.
Later the team members visited Gorla helmet, where Fazal Hussain and his four children became the first victims of this unidentified illness.
The PGIMER team interacted with the residents of this area, and collected their samples of blood, urine, nails, hairs, eatables, water etc. for further study and examination.
The team, who spent 5 hours in Badhal area, also enquired about the type of fertilizer villagers used for crops/vegetables, any local herb they take for treatment, about the environment etc.
Earlier the higher authorities had sent experts from reputed institutions from across the country to aid the investigation and ensure immediate relief measures.
17 unfortunate deaths in Badhal village due to unidentified illness could be because of toxins.
The initial tests conducted by a toxicology laboratory in Lucknow under CSIR indicated the absence of any infection, virus, or bacteria.