Suspected encephalitis kills 36 children in Bihar

Suspected mosquito-borne encephalitis has killed 36 children in Bihar in last one week, but state government is yet to identify the disease and its health officials are still guessing to diagnose it.

20 children died at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur followed by 10 in Kejriwal Hospital in Muzaffarpur. One died at private clinic in Motihari and two at Patna Medical College and Hospital in Patna. Besides,four  children died in different villages in Muzaffarpur.

"Ten children died in last 48 hours at SKMCH and Kejriwal hospitals in Muzaffarpur. With this death toll of children rose to 36," a health official said.

After three dozen children died, mostly belonging to poorest of the poor families in Muzaffarpur, Motihari, Gopalganj and Patna districts, state government decided to identify the villages affected and carry out intensive spraying of DDT to kill mosquitoes, which are responsible for the suspected disease.

Bihar health minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey told rediff.com in Patna on Wednesday that health officials have been directed to start spraying DDT in villages. "All such villages from  where children died due to mysterious disease and children have been admitted in hospitals will be identified to spray DDT," Choubey said.

It must be recalled that it was Choubey who described heat-stroke as the cause of the deaths four days ago.

Till date the state government has not confirmed officially the real cause behind these deaths. Doctors in Muzaffarpur treating children in different hospitals suggest that the symptoms are similar to encephalitis.

Even state BJP president Dr C P Thakur, a renowned Kalaazar expert, disclosed that test result of one of the four blood samples conducted by Patna-based Rajendra Memorial Research Institute, has confirmed encephalitis.

But Principal Health Secretary Amarjeet Sinha said that disease was not diagnosed and test samples of blood would be sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for confirmation.

"Even though the disease had not been diagnosed, the government was providing symptomatic treatment to the patients," Sinha said.

Choubey has made it clear that state government is serious to handle the situation. "We will bear expenses of all patients undergoing treatment and teams of doctors will visit villages to provide immunisation and proper treatment," he said.

Nearly 40 children still suffering from high fever are being treated at the SKMCH and other hospitals including private clinics in Muzaffarpur. "Some new patients complaining of high fever, severe headache, vomiting were admitted to the hospital in the last 24 hours," a staff of SKMCH said.

Dr A K Singh, civil surgeon, Muzaffarpur, denied that encephalitis had claimed the lives of the children, but admitted that the symptoms were similar.

"Medical authorities have collected samples which have been sent for tests in virology laboratories at Pune and Kolkata. The medical reports were still awaited," Singh said.

Two expert teams -- one from Pune-based National Institute of Virology and another from Union health ministry in New Delhi -- visited SKMCH and Kejriwal hospital in Muzaffarpur on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The team members will visit villages hit by the disease to identify the disease that had killed several children in last one week. "The expert would also collect samples of local animals to identify the cause of the disease for which the department of forest has been approached," Sinha said.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar earlier directed health officials to take preventive measures to check spread of the unknown disease. Kumar had also requested Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to immediately send a central team to Bihar to find out the reasons behind the disease outbreak.