85 kids dead, but Bihar hospitals lack Japanese encephalitis test kits

It may sound strange but it is true. Despite the fact that Bihar is in the grip of Japanese encephalitis, the state's largest government-owned Patna Medical College and Hospital has stopped testing for it for the last 11 days, because of the lack of kits.

Japanese encephalitis has claimed the lives of 85 children in Gaya district alone in last three months, and 51 children in Muzaffarpur in June-July this year.

The Patna Medical College and Hospital has detected about 153 positive Japanese encephalitis cases until November 8.

"After detecting 153 brain fever cases in the last one-and-half-months in PMCH , the disease has become the reason of lot of worry," a PMCH official said.

"We have stopped doing the tests test since November 9 because of lack of JE test kits," Dr Viay Kumar, a viorologist at the Microbiology department of the PMCH said.

Kumar told rediff.com that lack of test kits has badly hit the PMCH, which was conducting sample tests.

"We have repeatedly informed the concerned department for providing us the JE kits, but to no avail," he said.

Another official of the PMCH on condition of anonymity said that at a time when state is facing outbreak of JE, the PMCH has run out of test kits.

"It just goes on to show how concerned the government is," he lamented. However, Bihar Health Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey denied the charges.

"I have no such information," Choubey, who had initially refuted reports that children had died of encephalitis in Muzaffarpur when it was reported first, said.

The state government is yet to confirm the deaths of the 51 children in Muzaffarpur as encephalitis deaths.

In Gaya, the story is more or less same. The pediatric department of Anugrah Narain Medical College and Hospital is facing acute shortage of child specialists and nursing staff to treat JE patients.

Against the 10 sanctioned posts (for doctors), only three doctors are struggling to treat over two dozen children who are battling for life after being affected by JE.

Dr A K Ravi, head of the pediatric department said that he had informed the central team from New Delhi that visited the ANMCH about the work pressure.

ANMCH Superintendent Dr Sitaram Prasad admitted that most of the hospital departments including pediatric are facing shortage of doctors and nursing staff.

Prasad said that the government had employed several medical teams to control the disease. He said that more than 386 children with suspected encephalitis were admitted for treatment.

Prasad said that five member central team visited several encephalitis affected rural areas of Gaya and the neighbouring districts. "The team will submit its report to the Union Health ministry soon" he said.

He said that the affected children are still undergoing treatment at the ANMCH. He added that those children who died mostly belonged to the poorest families from Gaya and its neighbouring districts. A district administration official said that encephalitis had earlier hit Gaya in 2009, 2007 and 2005, and killed dozens of children.

Principal Secretary (Health), Amarjeet Sinha said that about 386 cases of encephalitis were reported by government hospitals in the state till date this year, of which 46 were confirmed cases of the dreaded JE. Sinha said that prior to this year, the largest incidence of encephalitis was in 2007 when 356 cases had been reported by government hospitals.