Mysterious disease in Jammu and Kashmir; 12, including kids, dead so far

A total of 12 people have died in Badhaal village in Rajouri district of Jammu after a mysterious disease was identified in the village. On Monday, two more kids succumbed to the disease while being treated at hospital.

Two more children died on Monday after six kids from a family were admitted to hospital due to a mysterious illness at Badhaal village in Rajouri district, officials told news agency PTI. Six children of Mohammad Aslam were taken to the community health centre for a medical check-up on Saturday evening. The children were treated in hospital where 5-year-old Nabeena breathed her last on Sunday, they said.

The village under the Kotranka sub-division has been grappling with a mysterious disease that claimed the lives of nine people from two different families since December last year. The latest deaths have taken the toll to 12, officials said.

According to Dr Ashutosh Gupta, principal of GMC Hospital, preliminary investigations pointed to a viral infection as the cause of the mysterious deaths. However, he also said that more studies were needed to reach a definitive conclusion. Meanwhile, teams of experts from Pune's National Institute of Virology, PGI Chandigarh, AIIMS Delhi, and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi, have visited the village to assist in the investigations.

As per Daily Excelsior, the children showed symptoms like fever, sweating, vomiting, dehydration, episodic loss of consciousness etc. after which they were referred to the Government Medical College (GMC), Associated Hospital in Rajouri and later to SMGS Hospital (GMC) Jammu.

"Six children were admitted to the hospital here. One girl died yesterday, while two more children passed away today. Nothing is known about the exact cause of the deaths yet. The health department has failed to identify the disease," Aijaz Ahmed, a close relative of the deceased children, told The New Indian Express.

"This incident has drawn unsettling parallels with a similar tragedy in December 2024 ( Initially on Dec 7 and 12), when eight members of a related family in the same village died under mysterious circumstances," the media reported.