Vaccination Campaign Against Encephalitis Launched in Bihar

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday launched a two-day vaccination campaign in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district hit by a suspected encephalitis outbreak that has claimed the lives of at least 139 children so far.

"The campaign has been launched to ensure 100 percent immunization of children in the affected areas," Harsh Vardhan told media persons after the campaign began at a primary health centre in Kanti block of Muzaffarpur, about 70 km from here.

He said all children should be vaccinated as it is the best preventive measure against any disease.

"Immunization is a must for children for safeguarding them against all diseases, not only encephalitis," he said.

"I was informed by doctors and health officials here that 92 percent children in the affected districts have not been vaccinated. Our aim is to ensure 100 percent immunization of children," Harsh Vardhan said.

He said that after returning to Delhi Sunday night, he would formulate a comprehensive plan to eradicate the suspected Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

"I have discussed it with experts and doctors during my visit to Muzaffarpur. It helped me understand the situation. I will also discuss the disease with experts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based in Atlanta, US, during my visit June 26," he said.

The union minister said that he has already discussed the disease and its possible causes with World Health Organisation (WHO) officials and scientists from various institutes but they were not sure whether it was viral, toxic or metabolic.

"There is a need of in depth research on the cause of deaths due to the disease," he said.

Harsh Vardhan reiterated that the central government would provide all possible help to Bihar in controlling the outbreak.

A virology centre would be set up in Bihar on the lines of the National Institute of Virology in Pune, he said.

The disease, limited to Muzaffarpur till last week, has now spread to Vaishali, Samastipur, Sheohar, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Begusarai, Bhagalpur and Gaya districts of the state.

The Acute Encephalitis Syndrome is a severe case of encephalitis characterised by inflammation of the brain. The infection - transmitted by mosquitoes - causes high fever.

Source: NDTV

Encephalitis Spreads in Bihar: 107 Children Dead in Two Months

The suspected encephalitis death toll in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district is increasing by the day and according to the latest report, 107 children have died in the last two months.

Now, the outbreak is spreading to some of the adjoining districts. Three-year-old Salman, from Bihar's Sheohar district, has been at a government hospital in Muzaffarpur for over two days now, brought in with the familiar symptoms of fever, shivering and body ache, that affects hundreds of children in these parts each year, and has resulted in many deaths from what doctors suspect is acute encephalitis.

But over two decades after this disease started hit Muzaffarpur, no cause or cure has been found yet.

The Bihar government says it has provided an ambulance at each block office within Muzaffarpur so that children exhibiting any of the symptoms can be rushed to the designated hospitals. Currently, two hospitals in Muzaffarpur, one government and one private children's hospital have the required facilities and treatment available. However a dedicated encephalitis ward at the government hospital has not been set up but authorities says it will be created soon.

Last week , the Union Health Minister announced a series of measures to tackle encephalitis including a bigger effort to identify the cause of the disease and a five-year action plan similar to the one implemented for polio.

Source: NDTV

Experts Collect Litchi Samples in Bihar to Identify Deadly Virus

Experts on Wednesday collected samples of litchi to identify the virus strain that has claimed the lives of over 50 children in Bihar.

"We have collected samples of litchi from orchards in affected areas for toxicology study. It will help us to identify the virus strain of the disease that remains a mystery till date," said Prabhat Kumar Sinha, who is heading a six-member team from the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS).

"Now it will be known whether the disease was caused by litchi or not," Sinha told IANS over the phone. "In fact, the disease still remains a mystery," he said.

Some scientists, including Sinha, in their earlier reports had attributed the disease to litchies in Muzaffarpur district. "It is a subject for in-depth research," he said.

Vishal Nath, director of the Muzaffarpur-based National Research Centre for Litchi, said northern Bihar, including Muzaffarpur, accounts for over 62 percent of the country's total litchi production.

He said Muzaffarpur's Shahi Litchi is famous for its unique flavour and taste.

Five more children died of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) Wednesday in Muzaffarpur district, taking the statewide death toll to 51 in the past 10 days.

Health officials said they had identified half a dozen districts where the disease has spread but the worst affected is Muzaffarpur, known for its sweet and juicy litchies.

Meanwhile, Bihar Health Minister Ramdhani Singh told reporters here that national and international scientific teams were camping in Muzaffarpur to ascertain the cause of the disease.

A team from the Atlanta-based Central Disease Control has come to the state after the centre's intervention to help control the disease.

Ramdhani Singh said the state government has already appealed to the central government for assistance. He said the doctors treating the affected children informed him that the disease has not attained an epidemic form so far.

Source: NDTV

38 Lives Lost in Bihar: No Cure for This Deadly Disease Yet

Suspected encephalitis has claimed 38 lives in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district so far this year, and more than 120 children are admitted in various hospitals after being diagnosed with the ailment.

The disease has acquired the proportions of an epidemic, and has become an annual affair, with poor children being the most vulnerable among the target groups. No treatment is available so far - a scary prospect by all standards.

At Muzaffarpur's Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital, 8-month- old Ananya presents a heart breaking sight. Doctors suspect she is suffering from encephailitis, and she is battling for her life. Cases have been reported at Muzaffarpur's Kejriwal Nursing Home too.

Her parents brought her to the hospital on Tuesday morning, after she complained of high fever and shivering. Doctors attending to the patients in the hospital's intensive care still don't know why this disease has been striking Muzaffarpur and adjoining areas for over two decades now.

So far this year, there have been 38 deaths because of suspected encephalitis. In 2013, there were 62 casualties reported from Muzaffarpur and adjoining districts.

Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, too, has been in the grip of encephalitis. Inspite of the best efforts of the government of India and international research organisations, no cause or cure for the disease has been found yet.

Dr Gyan Bhushan, Civil Surgeon of Muzaffarpur, says, "I have been in the field for three years. It seems that heat, and, particularly, humidity have a large role to play. When humidity levels go up, these children seem to develop severe glucose deficiency.''

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, after chairing a meeting on encephalitis in the capital today, announced a series of measures to tackle the dreaded disease, including a five-year action plan similar to the pulse polio eradication campaign, a dedicated ward for encephalitis in Muzaffarpur and dedicated surveillance systems to track its outbreak.

"I have instructed officials of Bihar and UP to take it up like an emergency. Giving 100 per cent immunisation coverage to a few districts in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is also a must,'' he told reporters later.

Source: NDTV

Dalit girl tonsured, face blackened, paraded in Bihar

A panchayat in eastern Bihar tonsured the head of a 14-year-old orphan Dalit girl, blackened her face and paraded her through a village as "punishment" for talking to a boy.

The incident of extreme public humiliation took place at Kadwa Tola village under sadar police station, about 10 km east of divisional headquarters town of Purnia on Tuesday, police said on Wednesday.

"They smeared my face with ash, shaved my head and made me run around the village in that state as I was too poor to pay Rs. 12,000 fine the panchayat had imposed on me for talking to the boy," police quoted the girl as saying.

Six out of seven accused including the village headman Vishnudeo Rishi has been arrested, said Shweta Kumari, the station house officer (SHO) of Purnia women's police station.

The Bihar incident, though not as brutal, brought back memories of the gang rape of a 20-year-old tribal woman in west Bengal's Birbhum district in January at the orders of a salishi sabha, the state's equivalent of khap panchayats, for a similar "crime"

Then too the kangaroo court had imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 on the girl and her boyfriend and her failure to pay up had led to the sexual assault as "humiliation".

The victim of the Bihar incident, who lives with her grandfather, told Hindustan Times through an intermediary that both her parents died a few years ago from leprosy. She is a class 6 student of a middle school.


Coincidentally, the public humiliation of the minor took place on a day when a woman lawmaker of Purnia district, Dhamdaha MLA Lesi Singh, was sworn in as a member of the Nitish Kumar cabinet.

But a section of Kadwa Tola residents sought to justify the village panchayat action as necessary for maintenance of "social discipline and moral propriety". Police "interference" in such matters was unwarranted, they insisted.

As per the girl's statement to the police, some residents of Kadwa Tola found her talking to a boy of the same village near the Gulabbagh marketing yard on Monday evening.

"They tied me and the boy I was talking to and kept us hungry for the whole of Monday night. On Tuesday morning, the panchayat members slapped a fine of Rs. 12,000 on each of us," she told the police.

She said that the boy was released after his parents promised to pay the fine.

Her 65-year-old grandfather supports his family of four members including the victim by pulling a rickshaw.

The Purnia SHO said, "we are keeping the victim under police protection. She may be referred to a rehabilitation centre in a day or two".

Source: HT

Bihar launched birth registration campaign

Little girl plays with the globe on the table of the school principal....she is oblivious to the discussion her father is having with the principal about birth registration certificate.

The father is clueless of the registration process, its benefits and utility. Her face lights up when the principal turns to her and asks; 'what is your name.....timidly she responds'...Meena!

Meena like the millions of children in Bihar, are yet to get their birth registered. The directorate of Economics and Statistics under the department of Planning and Development, Bihar on Tuesday launched a birth registration campaign for 28 days. The campaign will be on for almost a month (until 31 December 2013).

The birth registration campaign is a state led unique initiative inaugurated by the chief minister Nitish Kumar. The campaign will cover all enrolled children in the rural primary and upper primary schools to have their birth registered. Altogether there are 71,000 schools in the state which will promote the birth registration campaign for a month, said a senior Bihar government official.

Unicef has technically supported the campaign design and products to stimulate demand and promote maximum coverage for birth registration. Dr Yameen Mazumder, chief of field office, UNICEF Bihar informed that the "birth registration campaign will go a long way in realizing the right of identity of children in Bihar".

Source: TOI

1,600 children dead in UP, Bihar; no answers yet

Across seven districts in north Bihar and four districts in east Uttar Pradesh, children have been dying around monsoon for years now. The toll since 2011 is at least 1,634 dead, thousands afflicted.

The victims are all very young, mostly come from poor families, and the symptoms generally involve fever, convulsions and nausea, followed by sudden death. In Gorakhpur, the disease has been labelled since the 1970s as Japanese Encephalitis. When Muzaffarpur, 250 km away, started seeing similar deaths several years ago, they were also blamed on JE.

However, with treatment procedures and mass immunisations for JE failing, experts have been coming from across the country and the world to decipher the mystery illnesses of Muzaffarpur and Gorakhpur.

After tests for many viruses, and examining several factors, including environmental, they have found few answers except ruling out what the disease isn't. And it isn't JE in Bihar, while in UP, the percentage of children suffering and dying from it is minuscule. What has been established is that the two epicentres are seeing different facets of what is being called 'Acute Encephalitis Syndrome'.

In a two-part series starting today, The Indian Express explores the mystery and the malady of Muzaffarpur and Gorakhpur.

Source: indianexpress