Encephalitis kills over 300 children in eastern Uttar Pradesh

Encephalitis or ‘brain fever’ has claimed more than 300 lives of children up to the age of 15 in eastern UP this year. Most of these children are from poor families in Gorakhpur and some adjoining districts.

In fact, 500 deaths due to encephalitis has become an annual feature in this region. But both the state and the Central governments have displayed complete apathy in arresting this recurring scourge.

Dr RN Singh, a veteran child specialist, who has been running an encephalitis eradication programme in the affected area for several years now, hits the nail on the head when he says: “Governments ignore such a large number of encephalitis deaths because those dying are children from poor families, mostly labourers and farmers. Otherwise, stopping this scourge is not such a difficult task.”

This year, UP health department officials say, about 2,000 encephalitis cases have been reported in eastern UP. Out of these, more than 300 children have already died.

At present, there are about 600 patients at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, the only hospital in the entire eastern UP equipped to handle encephalitis cases.

In contrast, there are just 200 beds in this hospital which means at least three patients sharing a bed. Half of these are encephalitis-hit children battling for their lives.

Though encephalitis has been killing children in this region since 1978, the last time an effective drive was undertaken to combat this menace was in 2005 after the death of about 2,000 children within four months.

About 1.75 crore children up to the age of 15 were injected with preventive vaccines imported from China. However, the ‘booster’ shot which was to be given within three years was never administered. Still, the vaccination brought down the deaths due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) immensely.

The JE incidence was down to seven per cent. But the virus changed its pattern and continued to kill the children who started getting the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

Prof TN Dhol, a renowned micro-biologist, says viruses change their pattern and area as they develop resistance to preventive vaccination. This is why even children who got the preventive vaccine were affected and killed by the disease. Doubts have also been raised over the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine.

Another hurdle that the doctors in eastern UP face while combating this killer disease is the absence of facility for the “Eliza test” needed to diagnose encephalitis.

Apart from Gorakhpur and Basti, none of the half-a-dozen affected districts have the facility. What complicates matters is that both JE and AES have similar symptoms (high fever, vomiting, diarrohea, unconsciousness, convulsions) but warrant completely different treatment and prevention.

For its part, the state government has done little by way of providing relief. Even UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who had made promised encephalitis eradication while touring east UP during his election campaign, seems to have forgotten his promises. So, for the time being, the poor children battling against the dreaded disease seem to be at God’s mercy alone.