Mysterious ‘brain-damaging disease’ striking kids kills 17 as hundreds quarantined over fears ‘toxin’ will spread
A MYSTERIOUS brain-damaging disease has claimed the lives of 17 people - 13 of them children.
The deaths occurred in India-administered Jammu and Kashmir, prompting authorities to quarantine hundreds of people as they raced to identify the cause.
It comes as five people have died in a separate suspected outbreak of Guillain-Barré syndrome the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
The mysterious illness first cropped up in December 2024.
Residents of the remote village of Badhaal in Jammu's Rajouri area started falling ill, according to local media reports.
The deaths took place between December 7 and January 19 this year.
Read more on disease outbreaks
Authorities declared the village a containment zone in late January and quarantined 230 people, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.
All of the victims had damage to the brain and nervous system, Amarjeet Singh Bhatia, who heads Rajouri's government medical college, said.
"The winter vacations have also been cancelled to deal with the medical alert situation," PTI quoted Bhatia as saying.
The victims were members of three related families.
Most read in Health
Six of the children who died were siblings, aged between seven to 15 years.
Health officials said victims of the mysterious illness initially showed symptoms similar to food poisoning but suddenly lost consciousness, according to .
The first five patients - including four children - were admitted to hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea, while others complained of sore throats and breathing problems, Dr Bhatia said.
The federal government launched an investigation lead by police officers, pathologists and other specialists, who questioned dozens of people in a attempt to pinpoint the cause of the brain-damaging disease.
Health minister Jitendra Singh saying an initial probe suggested the deaths were "not due to any infection, virus or bacteria but rather a toxin".
PTI quoted Mr Singh as saying: "There is a long series of toxins being tested. I believe a solution will be found soon.
"Additionally, if there was any mischief or malicious activity, that is also being investigated."
Initial investigations indicated that consumption of contaminated food and water may have been to blame.
Residents of the village were asked not to drink water from a local spring after a test sample showed it contained traces of pesticides.
A more recent local media report suggests the mystery illness could have been caused by organophosphate poisoning - caused by the body reacting to a group of chemical compounds found in pesticides, insecticides and herbicides.
According to , an antidote to counteract organophosphate poisoning had been administered to some patients in hospital, seeming to work well.
Suspected Guillain-Barré syndrome outbreak
In Maharashtra, at least five people have died in what's thought to be an outbreak of the paralysing nerve disease Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) - a rare neurological disease that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis.
Most of the cases have been detected in the city of Pune, with 163 sickened.
State government officials said at least 21 patients are on ventilator support and 48 were admitted to intensive care.
GBS is a rare autoimmune condition, where the immune system attacks peripheral nerves.
It leads to symptoms like numbness, tingling and muscle weakness that can progress to paralysis.
With treatment, more people can fully recover from the condition.
What is GBS Guillain-Barré syndrome
Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare condition that affects the nerves. It's serious and needs urgent treatment in hospital.
Guillain-Barré syndrome affects your senses, your movement and things such as breathing and your heartbeat.
It usually affects your arms and legs first before you get symptoms in other parts of your body.
Symptoms usually get worse over the first 2 to 4 weeks.
You might feel tingling, numbness or pins and needles in your feet and hands first. This is usually followed by muscle weakness and difficulty moving your joints.
Other symptoms can include:
- sharp, shooting pain (nerve pain), often in your legs or back
- problems breathing
- problems with your face, such as drooping face muscles or trouble swallowing or speaking
- problems with your eyes, such as double vision
Source: NHS.uk
But the disease's mortality rate ranges between three and 13 per cent, depending on how severe it is and the quality of treatment.
While most cases of GBS around the world come from , it can also spread through contaminated water, experts say.
The outbreak in Pune is being traced to a pathogen called campylobacter jejuni, a common cause of cause of foodborne infections and one of the most common drivers of GBS across the world.
That being said, it's still rare for people to develop GBS after catching the bacterial infection.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only about one in every 1,000 people with campylobacter infection gets GBS.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
The World Health Organisation announced it was helping health authorities respond to the suspected outbreak, training them in "conducting ‘active case searches’ in the community living in the affected areas to ensure every suspected case is identified, diagnosed and treated".
Authorities say they have examined more than 60,000 houses, picked up 160 water samples for tests, and asked people to drink boiled water and eat fresh, properly cooked food.