By Swastika Chowdhury
An unidentified disease outbreak occurred in the village of Badhaal in Jammu and Kashmir taking the death toll to 12 people including children in the Badhaal village in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir. It was also recently reported that on Monday two more kids succumbed to the disease while being treated at the hospital.
The question of the hour is do we bring back masks? After the outbreak and a sharp incline in the cases of HMPV where more than 15 people have been affected so far, majorly children, another such mysterious illness spread in Jammu and Kashmir where the recent deaths of two more children from a family who were admitted succumbed to it, officials told PTI.
The village in Rajouri, under the sub-division has been grappling with an unidentified disease that claimed the lives of nine citizens from two different families since December last year.
The associated symptoms with the disease are fever, sweating, vomiting, dehydration, episodic loss of consciousness after which the children got referred to Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH) in Rajouri and later to SMGS Hospital (GMCH), Jammu.
Dr. Ashutosh Gupta, principal of Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH), primarily has pointed out to a viral infection as the cause behind those mysterious deaths. He concluded by saying how more relevant studies needs to be done to reach a relevant conclusion.
In a recent interview with the family members of the deceased children, Aijaz Ahmed, a close family relative, said to The New Indian Express, “The health department has failed to identify the disease”.
In relation to Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) more than 15 cases have been recorded so far in the areas of Puducherry, Gujarat and a recent case sprang up in Assam this Monday.