A mysterious disease has killed 15 children in West Bengal's Murshidabad district in the past five days, health officials said on Friday.
About 100 children have been afflicted with the strange disease that leaves a victim with high temperature and muscular convulsions. The victims of the mystery ailment are aged within five years.
All the deaths have been reported from villages from Kadamtala, Kurchidanga, Natundiyar and Jagarpara villages in Lalgola block.
The state government has sent a team of doctors to the affected villages to collect blood and sputum samples, Director of State Health Services Prabhakar Chatterjee said.
Though Chatterjee was unwilling to guess the reason for the deaths, he did not rule out the scorching summer heat as a possibility.
According to reports, villagers claim their children had received little treatment at the Lalgola hospital, and the district administration has been a mute spectator to their tragedy so far.
Murshidabad district health officer Bijoy Mondal has refuted the reports of the deaths. But government health officials in Kolkata have admitted to the occurrence of the strange disease.
The team of doctors from National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Disease has been asked to immediately treat those suffering from the disease and even send them to hospitals in Kolkata if need be.