A team of 2 doctors namely P K Seth and J K Das along with one lab technician of the community health centre Chainpur visited Patarya Khurd tola where there had occurred two deaths, incidentally of minor girls in a span of less than a week said the medical officer in charge of the community health centre Chainpur Dr Chaman Kr Bhardwaj.

Bhardwaj said the team collected nearly 70 blood samples there. None had any malaria parasite. The team did not find anything posing as any threat to the public health there.

Bhardwaj said the Patarya Khurd tola has Bhuiyan dalits but they are too conscious of their drinking water. They use solar energy driven underground water for drinking. Bhardwaj said the team ruled out any contamination issue with the drinking water here.

The first to die a sudden death was a girl below ten years of age. She had complaints about stomach ache and distension of the abdomen. Her bereaved family was most reluctant to give details of her sickness and death to our visiting medical team, added Bhardwaj.

The other person who died was a 17 year old girl. She had bouts of vomiting. Her death was equally sudden. The medical officer in charge of the community health centre Chainpur said none of the two girls who died here had any bout of 'loose motion'.

Civil surgeon Palamu Dr Anil Kumar said he first of all got a call from the newly elected zila parishad member apprising him of the two deaths that occurred at Patarya Khurd tola. He said that he immediately alerted his medical officer in charge of the community health centre at Chainpur Dr Chaman Kr Bhardwaj to rush a medical team there to this hamlet of Bhuiyan.

The team rushed to the hamlet and conducted a general health audit. The health scenario there was found neither alarming nor mysterious as described in a section of media.

The Civil surgeon said what our medical team gathered there was that the two who so lost their lives so abruptly had Saag in their meals and neither our team nor we can jump to any conclusion as to what after all hastened the two girls to die a painful death.

Sources said Saag is nutritious but it should be cleansed thoroughly so as to have no trace of any insecticide etc on it.

Bhardwaj said the two girls who lost their lives came from two different families.

Sources said as the medical team did reach the hamlet without any delay there was no anger or grudge against the local government doctors of the community health centre at Chainpur.

Civil surgeon Dr Anil Kumar said he has asked his medical officers in charge of the community health centres to keep Sahiyas, ANMs etc alert for any health issue that crops up in any location near or far off as we are duty bound to reach there for medical assistance.