Indian health authorities have opened an investigation to try to determine the origin of a mysterious illness which has already caused the death of 17 people in the Kashmir region (northwest), the local press reported on Saturday.
These deaths, including those of 13 children, have been recorded since the beginning of December in the remote village of Badhaal, where 230 residents were confined this week, said the Press Trust of India (PTI) agency.
“Winter holidays have also been canceled due to this emergency situation,” local medical official Amarjeet Singh Bhatia told PTI.
The disease caused damage to the brain and nervous system of the victims, from three families, he said without further details.
The Indian Minister of Health, Jitendra Singh, for his part indicated that the preliminary results of the ordered federal investigation suggested that the victims had not died of “an infection, a virus or a bacteria but more like a toxin.
“A long series of toxins were tested. I think a cure will be found quickly. We are also examining the hypothesis of an error or malice,” continued the minister quoted by PTI.
Furthermore, the authorities of the Indian city of Pune (west) recently identified in their population at least 73 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disease which affects the nervous system, of which 14 were hospitalized in a state serious.