The mysterious disease has killed eight people in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, with a 12-year-old boy, Ashfaq Ahmed, becoming the latest victim of the disease in a hospital on Wednesday. His death has sparked an urgent alarm, prompting the authorities to send a central team of experts to investigate the alarming situation in the affected village.
A BSL-3 mobile lab has been sent to Rajouri in order to carry out the testing and identification of the sickness. Ashfaq, son of Mohammad Rafiq, was admitted at GMC Jammu for six days after he was referred for treatment from Chandigarh, where he was not able to recover.
Sadly, Ashfaq’s younger siblings, seven-year-old Ishtiyaq and five-year-old Nazia, had succumbed to the illness on Thursday last week. Ashfaq’s death has taken the total number of casualties in Badhaal village of Kotranka tehsil to eight, belonging to two families from the same locality.
Deputy Commissioner Rajouri, Abhishek Sharma, visited Kotranka on Monday to take stock of the situation in Badhaal village, where seven people, including six children below 14 years, have died due to this mysterious disease.
In response to the alarming outbreak, officials have confirmed a BSL-3 mobile laboratory has been dispatched into the region, and it has formed a specialized central team for aiding local authorities in conducting inquiries into the cases of infections and deaths. Members of the community are at high alert as efforts continue to find out the causative agent for this distressing situation.
