PILIBHIT: An outbreak of an undiagnosed fever in Rasiakhanpur village under Bisalpur tehsil of UP’s Pilibhit district has claimed at least four lives, including a 20-day-old infant, within three days, with gram pradhan Rashid Hussain saying that more than 100 villagers — some critically ill — are presently in the grip of the “mystery fever”.Alarmed, the health department on Thursday dispatched two teams each from health and malaria units to the village to carry out intensive screening and tests. Chief medical officer, Dr Alok Kumar, said, “The health department’s team led by Bisalpur-based community health centre’s medical officer in-charge, Dr Lekh Raj Gangwar, would carry out blood tests of those suffering from the fever via ‘card blood test’ method. It would be followed by a blood sample collection drive, under which villagers would be covered for clinical tests of their samples for precise diagnosis of the fever and its variations.”“Once the nature of the fever is diagnosed, we shall deploy special medical teams to provide the appropriate treatment and medicines to the villagers on a war footing. From Friday, we’ll conduct insecticide fogging and spraying in the village,” he added.Fearing a major outbreak, possibly of dengue, or other disease in the village, local residents criticised the health department for not taking enough preventive measures. As per the data, the village has a population of 7,017 with 1,147 households.Nazim Hussain said his uncle, Izratulla Chishti, 65, had high fever about five days ago, and he died in a private hospital in Bareilly on Wednesday. Another villager, Shaukat Hussain, said his sister, Tarranum, 19, died the same day in another private health facility. She suffered “a stroke of hyperpyrexia” four days ago, he added.Jan Mohammad lost his 20-day-old son on Tuesday after the child was undergoing treatment for high fever for four days. Ramasare Lal, another grieving man, said his wife, Sunita Devi, 45, died on Tuesday after battling similar fever-like symptoms for five days.