Govt: Deaths not due to communicable disease

CSIR-IITR ANALYSIS DETECTS TOXINS IN BIOLOGICAL SPECIMENS

- Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

JAMMU: The government of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday said it has been closely monitoring the situation in Badhaal village of Rajouri district where an unexplained illness has claimed 14 lives since December 7 last year. One child admitted in Sri Maharaja Gulab Singh Hospital in Jammu is critical.

"Investigations and samples empirically indicate that the incidents are not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle. Pertinently, all samples have tested negative for any viral or bacteriological etiology," an official statement mentioned.

"The tests were conducted on different samples in some of the most reputed labs of the country. These include National Institute of Virology Pune, National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, National Institute of Toxicology and Research, Lucknow, Defence Research Development Establishment, Gwalior, the Microbiology Department of PGIMER in Chandigarh besides the ICMR-Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory and GMC Jammu," said the statement issued here stated.