Over 200 people have died of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), which is similar to Japanese Encephalitis (JE), in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the past few months.
The disease claimed the lives of five children at BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, in the past 24 hours, while 145 patients are being treated, additional director (health) LP Rawat said. He said 960 patients suffering from JE and AES were admitted to the medical college and other hospitals in the region this year. Of these, 210 died.
Every year, brain fever claims hundreds of lives mostly during rains. Most victims are children in the age group of one to 15. As per official figures, AES and JE claimed 1,135 lives in 2005, 437 in 2006, 547 in 2007 and 453 in 2008. This year, the toll has already touched 210. A health department official said: “Since the the deaths do not take place in the metro, the media does not care to report them.”
UP’s director general (health and family welfare) RR Bharti said, “The problem is there is still no known cure for the disease.” He said the National Institute of Virology, Pune, had set up a centre to study the causes of the disease. Experts from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases visited the affected areas and collected samples.
Health department officials said JE, which used to claim a large number of lives earlier, had been brought under control with vaccination and increased awareness in the affected districts. But AES continues to take lives every day.
The symptoms of AES are acute fever, confusion, disorientation, coma, or inability to talk and seizures which affect the nervous system. Other symptoms may include irritability, somnolence or abnormal behaviour.
Like swine flu, JE also has its origin in pigs. It is transmitted to humans through the culex mosquito which breeds in stagnant water, mainly during rains. There is no specific treatment for JE.
Poverty, filth and malnourishment make things worse. No wonder, eastern UP accounts for the largest number of JE/AES deaths. KP Kushwaha of BRD Medical College points out that there is only one doctor to look after encephalitis patients. This, for a disease which kills at least 25% of its patients.
