Jammu & Kashmir: Mysterious (respiratory) disease hits Pulwama village - possibly whooping cough

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2011/May/10/mysterious-disease-hits-pulwama-village-36.asp

Mysterious disease hits Pulwama village
4 Kids Die, 450 Infected

Srinagar, May 9: Four children have died due to outbreak of some unknown respiratory ailment in Trag area of Kellar in Pulwama district.
Sources revealed that more than 450 kids have contracted the disease and many of them have been shifted to G B Pant Children?s Hospital here for specialized treatment.
?There are four confirmed mortalities of children during the last one month due to the disease,? sources said. They said the children were suffering from cough, high body temperature and frequent vomiting.
?The Health department authorities failed to initiate any substantial action after the local health centre received frequent cases of children complaining about the disease symptoms,? sources said.
The CMO?s report has confirmed the death of two year old Muneeza daughter of Abdul Wahid of Aditrag.
Sources said a high level team from SK Institute of Medical Sciences on Sunday visited the affected area to assess the situation. ?The doctors? team took blood samples from the children to ascertain the disease which has caused mortality,? sources said.
Sources revealed that the area was remote and the people were facing acute shortage of medicine. ?The parents complained that they couldn?t get medicine for their sick children as it was not available in the area,? sources said.
Director Health, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman, confirmed the outbreak of the disease. ?Only one child has died in this month and another mortality happened months back,? Dr Saleem told Greater Kashmir, adding the disease had been contained.
Health Department Epidemiologist, Dr Manzoor Qadri, termed the disease as acute respiratory tract infection. ?As many as 410 children have contracted the disease and the number increased by 30 more today. Our team camped in the affected area took the samples and also distributed medicine free of cost to the affected children,? Dr Manzoor said.
He said the families were poor and five to six persons were living in one room, adding the children were malnourished due to which the disease spread.
An Army officer who is in the area with a team of Army doctors said poor hygiene and climatic changes were the two main reasons doctors held responsible for the disease outbreak.
?Doctors from the Army after examining the cases diagnosed the upper respiratory tract infection which is caused due to the poor hygiene and climatic changes," the officer said.
He said the Army treated at least 1000 children in the area and set up two mobile teams of doctors to control the disease.
He further said that the same disease had hit the area 5 years back and at that time also at least four children had died.
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 May 2011 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 May 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 9 May 2011 00:00:00 IST

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Jammu & Kashmir: Mysterious (respiratory) disease hits Pulwama village

Re: Jammu & Kashmir: Mysterious (respiratory) disease hits Pulwama village

Strange disease hits Pulwama village
Govt, Army depute study teams


Abid Bashir
Srinagar, May 08: Two children have lost their lives and many more taken ill from a ?strange? disease in a village in South


Kashmir?s Pulwama district during the last 20 days.
Meanwhile, at least five teams, including three from the government and two from the army, have been constituted to ascertain the causes of the outbreak.
Two children, including a two-year-old girl, died in Aritrag village while many others were taken ill prompting the authorities to appoint special teams to find out the causes of their death.
?Some 20 days back a child died and another one died on May 6 due to respiratory problems. We immediately went to the village to take stock of the situation. We appointed three special teams to know the causes of death,? said Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Shafat Noor.
The three teams include one from Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura.
The teams will submit their report soon, he said.
The initial investigations have revealed that the children died due to some respiratory infection.
?Three more children were referred to G B Panth children hospital, Srinagar. Of them one is stable while the condition of others is improving,? the DC added.
Noor said the disease may have been caused due to living habits of the Gujjar families in the remote area. ?These people have a habit to stay in one room. They cook there and to eat there as well. We believe that may be the root cause of the disease,? he said.
The deaths, meanwhile, has created panic among the villagers.
Abdul Wahid Poswal, a local resident said, his two-year-old daughter died on May 6. ?We don?t have access to medical facilities in our village. We have to walk at least two kms to buy medicines and to have medical check-ups,? he said.
Poswal said his daughter suddenly developed pain in her chest. ?We took her to district hospital Pulwama. She was referred to Srinagar where she breathed her last,? he said.
Ali Muhammad Poswal, another local resident, demanded immediate medicare facilities for the people of Aritrag. ?We are in desperate need of a couple of dispensaries, a mini-hospital and some ambulances,? he said.
DC Pulwama said they have distributed Rs 6000 as relief to the village. ?There is no need to worry as things are very much in control. We can?t say an epidemic has hit the villages as no signs of such thing came to the fore during initial study,? he said.


http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/strange-disease-hits-pulwama-village-9569.aspx

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Jammu & Kashmir: Mysterious (respiratory) disease hits Pulwama village

Re: Jammu & Kashmir: Mysterious (respiratory) disease hits Pulwama village

Respiratory tract disease hits Sangarwani children, 1 dies Published:5/8/2011 1:00:00 PMUpdated: 5/8/2011 12:05:27 PMBy: SHOWKAT DAR Filed Under: srinagar

PULWAMA, May 8: A child today died due to a respiratory tract disease, which has hit the children of Sangarwani village in Kellar. The locals said four children have died due to the ailment in the village during last 30 days.
The health department today sent many medical teams to Sangarwani. Many medical camps have been established there.
Two years old Muneeza daughter of Wahid Gorsi of Sangarwani was one among the four other children who died due to the woofing cough in the village. After detecting the disease she was admitted in the children?s hospital Srinagar yesterday but she died this morning in the hospital.
Four other children have been admitted in the hospital.
According to the locals due to the lack of basic medical facilities and non seriousness of health department four children have died in the area in one month.
?Today we lost fourth child in the village. For last one month we are suffering because of epidemic in the area but the department has not done anything. No doubt we are living in a backward area but we have been deprived of all basic medical facilities as a result our children are dying of cough and fever,? a local resident said.
Medical teams from Pulwama, shopian, SKIMS, Kulgam, and army examined all of the children.
?We detected some patients there and four of the children were admitted in the hospitals. There were teams from Srinagar, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian who examined the children there. Some teams are still there and many medical camps have been established there,? Mohammad Maqbool district Health officer Pulwama told Kashmir Times.
Giving details to Kashmir Times Deputy commissioner Pulwama Shafaat Noor said everything in the area was under control and many teams in the area were observing and examining children.
?Actually it was the respiratory tract infection in the village children. Unfortunately one child died today. However we have sent many teams from Pulwama. Also teams from Shopian, SKIMS, and three teams of army were present in the village who examined more than 1,000 children and many patients were detected there,? he said.
Shafaat Noor added that not four but two children died in the area due to the disease Director SKIMS Abdul Hamid Zargar said they also have sent a special team to Keller to verify the cause of the ailment.
http://kashmirtimes.com/news.aspx?ndid=6559