The Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) outbreak in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district seems unstoppable. Despite a dip in temperature no relief came in for infants as death toll has risen to 65 with three more kids dying in Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH).
Finally, health minister of Bihar Mangal Pandey paid visit to SKMCH Muzaffarpur today morning after the death toll had crossed 60.
“In the last 20-22 days, 57 children have died due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) outbreak. We are monitoring all this. The Health Ministry in the state held a meeting on this and decided to make people aware of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES),” said Mangal Pandey while briefing media.
A team of one professor, three associate professors, four assistant professors, nine senior residents and 15 junior residents are seeing this matter and looking after the children. We are providing more beds in both the hospitals for treatment,” he added.
During his visit to the paediatric ICU wards, Pandey enquired about children undergoing treatment, held a meeting with doctors and SKMCH authorities and directed them to provide proper treatment.
Apart from Mangal Pandey, Union health minister Dr. Harshvardhan along with his deputy Ashwini Choubey was likely to visit SKMCH on Thursday to assess the condition. But their visit was cancelled for unknown reasons.
Ironically, it was Pandey who, early this week, refuted reports of child deaths due to AES in Muzaffarpur, claiming that the cause of these deaths was hypoglycemia. In this list Bihar’s health secretary also got counted for supporting the argument of hypoglycemia.
The seven member central team headed by Dr. Arun Kumar Sinha declared encephalitis as reason behind death of infants and not hypoglycemia. According to Dr. Sunil Kumar Sahi, Superintendent SKMCH, “The central team is of the opinion that maximum cases reported are due to ‘encephalopathy’. It approved our treatment protocol,” said Dr Sunil Kumar Shahi, SKMCH superintendent.
The team asked SKMCH authorities to set up a separate research wing under the departments of microbiology and pathology to study the disease. “The team advised us to preserve serum samples of patients and examine them after 15 days, and do a follow-up, added Dr. Sahi.
AES outbreaks are routine in areas in and around Muzaffarpur during summer, and mostly affects children below 15 years of age.
Altogether 179 children have been admitted to two hospitals of the city out of which 65 have succumbed to the disease. In Motihari and Samastipur one case each of AES have been reported.
