Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Oct.29 (ANI): Authorities in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, have expressed alarm and worry over the rising number of encephalitis cases.
The city of Gorakhpur witnessed a rise in the reported cases of the disease in the month of October following bad weather conditions and water pollution.
"In October this year, the cases of encephalitis have increased in comparison to the previous months. Earlier, there were equal cases in September and October and patients used to keep coming till November and eventually the cases went down, but this year October has seen a rise. This has happened due to increased rains and bad weather. Water gets contaminated during monsoons, and that is why the impact of encephalitis has increased," said the principal of a medical college hospital, Dr.K.P. Kushwaha, on Tuesday.
As per the college authorities, 35-40 encephalitis patients were being admitted to the hospital and 5-7 deaths were taking place each day.
Viral encephalitis is inflammation of the brain and symptoms include high fever, headache, stiff neck and back, vomiting, confusion and, in severe cases, seizures, paralysis and coma.
Infants and elderly people are particularly at risk from the virus, which is often transmitted through insect bites. The most common forms include Japanese encephalitis and tick-borne encephalitis viruses.
According to reports, 1618 children with encephalitis were admitted to various hospitals across the district and 445 were reported to have lost their lives.
"The percentage of deaths has increased upto 26-28 this year. I am talking about just one hospital built under the name of Jawaharlal Nehru. Approximately 450 deaths have occurred there due the disease," said child specialist Dr.R.N. Singh.
Doctors said the children - most aged between two and eight years old and from five different districts of northern Bihar - may have caught the virus as a result of poor hygiene and nutrition.
Meanwhile, Singh said that the government was to be blamed for the sudden outbreak of deaths because the money approved for the use of the disease was not being used to prevent encephalitis.
He said that prevention would have been better than cure.
"Prevention by antro-viral vaccination should have been priority of the government, but the health government spent two-thirds of the money in making injections. The injections could have been imported and the injections, which are being made in India, are incurring ten times the cost of the imported injections. So we could have saved the money there and spent it on prevention. We couldn't reduce the numbers of deaths that occurred due to the disease," said Singh.
Over four billion people live in JE-endemic regions in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. JE is carried by mosquitoes and causes a viral brain infection.
It is the leading cause of viral neurological disease and disability in Asia, with nearly 70,000 cases and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 deaths reported each year.
However, because of limited surveillance and complexities in diagnosis, these figures likely underestimate JE's impact. Children who survive JE are often left with severe neurological damage.(ANI)
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