‘Mysterious disease’ claims six lives within one week

Published December 10, 2020
Six members of a family have died ‘mysteriously’ within a week at Namal Valley’s Thal Tegowal village. — Reuters/File
Six members of a family have died ‘mysteriously’ within a week at Namal Valley’s Thal Tegowal village. — Reuters/File

MIANWALI: Six members of a family have died ‘mysteriously’ within a week at Namal Valley’s Thal Tegowal village.

All of them tested negative for Covid-19 when health officials visited them to assess the situation.

Information gleaned by this correspondent reveals that a member of the family had high fever one week ago and he died within a day or two.

Other members of the family complained about similar symptoms and five of them including a woman and a child died one after another. Four others are said to be in a critical condition.

As word about the tragedy got round, teams of the district health department visited the affected family but could not diagnose the disease and took blood samples of the patients.

The Mianwali assistant commissioner also visited the family and reported the situation to the deputy commissioner.

On DC’s request, the Punjab health secretary sent a team of doctors to Thal Tegowal village. The team will report their findings to the secretary.

The residents of the village are in a state of panic as the health officials failed to diagnose the disease or shift the patients to the DHQ hospital for treat-ment.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2020

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