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February 18, 2002
2030 IST

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Plague scare: Expert team to submit report on Tuesday

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

The three-member team from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, which had gone to Himachal Pradesh to investigate the cause of some mysterious deaths, is expected to submit its findings to the Union health ministry on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths rose to four with one more person succumbing on Monday morning at the PGI hospital in Chandigarh.

The team is led by Dr Dibesh Bhattacharya, deputy director in the Delhi-based NICD.

NICD Director Dr Usha K Baweja told rediff.com that the team had returned to Delhi.

"Right now, they are busy analysing the samples they had collected," she said.

"We had dispatched a team to Himachal on February 13 immediately after receiving reports of a possible outbreak of plague. The team visited many places, including the house of the first patient," she added.

Meanwhile, state Health Minister J P Nadda said that the state would await the findings of the experts before deciding on whether to reopen the schools in Jubbal tehsil.

"The schools have been closed up to February 20 as a precautionary measure," Nada told rediff.com on phone from his office in Shimla.

He said that one more person, Anu, had succumbed to the mysterious disease, suspected to be pneumonic plague.

"In all, 15 patients had been admitted to various hospitals in Chandigarh, Shimla and Rohru. Barring the four who died, the rest are responding to treatment," he claimed adding that in last four days, no new case has been reported from any part of the state.

"I visited the house of the first patient along with a colleague of mine and found that things have returned to normal," he said.

Nadda said that the deaths were the result of bacterial infections.

RELATED REPORT:
14 hospitalised, efforts on to check spread of mystery disease in Himachal

More reports on the plague scare

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