Encephalitis toll 30, confusion prevails
Even as the number of children claimed by a suspected attack of encephalitis rose to 30 in Bihar on Monday, confusion prevailed over the causes of the disease that kills children by the scores in the state almost every summer.
While the death toll in Muzaffarpur rose to 27, two children died at a Patna hospital and one at Motihari, indicating that the disease, still being largely described here as mysterious and a result of the rising summer heat, could be spreading outside its familiar striking ground of Muzaffarpur district. The number of similarly sick children getting admitted to hospitals in various towns across Bihar grew to about 55 on Monday.
A concerned chief minister Nitish Kumar stressed the need for ascertaining the causes of the disease so as to enable effective treatment and said a Central team of health experts would shortly arrive from Delhi following his request to Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. But Mr Kumar became irritated when he found journalists’ questions about the state government’s response a bit more probing. In a mildly chiding tone, he said: “Are you (journalists) experts on everything? If you all become medical experts, then doctors will push aside their medical degrees”.
Bihar health minister Ashwini Choubey cut short his tour of Gujarat and rushed to Muzaffarpur along with state BJP chief and well-known medical doctor C.P. Thakur on Monday. Dr Thakur, a former Union health minister, is a known authority on kala-azar. Both he and Mr Choubey, however, said it would be premature to call the current disease encephalitis.
In June 2010, suspected encephalitis killed about 35 children in Muzaffarpur district in a week. A frightening spread of encephalitis and cerebral malaria together had killed 103 children across Bihar between July and October 2009.
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