Bihar fails to curtail kid deaths, toll climbs to 110

The terror of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) seems to be spreading in Bihar — with 110 lives already claimed — and now enveloping the districts of Vaishali (12), Motihari (2), Patna (2) and Begusarai (1). 

In Vaishali, most patients are being taken to the Hajipur Sadar Hospital where the emergency room is overflowing with only one doctor available to treat the children. The toll in epicentre Muzaffarpur, meanwhile, has climbed to 93, as four more children succumbed to the disease on Sunday.

One of the deaths was, in fact, in the presence of Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who was on a visit to the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) along with junior health minister Ashwini Choubey to take stock of the situation and meet the children and their parents. The minister also reviewed public health measures for containment and management of AES.

“My five-year-old daughter, Nisha, died due to Encephalitis fever. She was admitted to the hospital on Saturday,” said the mother of the deceased.

His visit was met with black flags by opposition parties, who claimed that the government inaction had exacerbated the situation. The situation was made worse by Choubey, who initially claimed that 'it was a small issue', but later clarified, “I am saying, we took the issue very seriously right from the start. The day we were informed, the minister sent a high-level team to tackle the situation.”

In the wake of the mounting fatalities, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to families of the children and also given directions to the health department, district administration and doctors to take necessary measures to fight the disease. Earlier, Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey said the state government is doing its best to save the children. “We are trying everything and anything that can save our children's lives. Everything is being made available from medicines to doctors. We have even called doctors and nurses from AIIMS in Patna,” he said.

Recalling the situation that prevailed five years ago, Pandey said a team that was formed to ascertain the cause of this disease concluded that sleeping empty stomach at night, dehydration due to humidity and eating lychee on empty stomach were some of the causes of Encephalitis.

With inputs from agencies