On the eve of Children’s Day the encephalitis toll in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh touched the 550 mark sending the health officials a grisly reminder that poor and malnourished children continued to die of a preventable disease because of their apathy.
"What can we sayIJ When the nation will be celebrating Children’s day on Thursday, the Nehru Chikitsalaya ward in Gorakhpur would be counting as how many more children have died of encephalitis," Dr R.N. Singh, Convener of Encephalitis Eradication Movement said.
Gorakhpur is the nerve centre of this dreaded disease. Children from the nearby districts including Bihar are brought to the BRD Medical College for treatment. The hospital has so far registered 550 deaths this year from this college only. "The number would be much more. We do not have figures as how many children have died in private hospitals and in nearby hospitals. Many others must have died without treatment," Dr Singh said.
In protest against the mounting death toll, people of Gorakhpur not to celebrate Children’s day on Thursday reminding officials that unless the lives of small children are saved there is no meaning in celebrating it.
The disease is predictable and preventable. The annual monsoon fills parched paddy fields, which bear the mosquitoes that spread Japanese encephalitis from pigs to humans, devastating malnourished children with low immunity. Another strain of the disease - acute encephalitis syndrome - spreads through contaminated water. Residents defecate in the fields, contaminating the ground water.
A vaccine has long been available, but the state government - which spent tens of millions of dollars building monuments to its last top politician - has failed to muster the sustained political will to focus on the communities hardest hit by the illness.
The disease killed more than 1,500 children in 2005, the worst recent year,Shocked by the deaths, Uttar Pradesh's High court in 2006 asked the state and central governments to declare encephalitis a national health emergency. "A concrete action plan must be drawn," it said.
That year the government started vaccinating children against Japanese encephalitis. The government vowed to immunize every child in the worst-affected areas and to launch a massive drive to improve sanitation. For a couple of years, the numbers dropped. In 2006, the disease killed 431 children.
But the crowded hospital wards of BRD Hospital reflect how the immunization drive has fizzled. last year, more than 700 children died.Health experts say the government has made repeated mistakes in the fight against encephalitis. Most of the 7.5 million children vaccinated between 2006 and 2010 were given only a single dose of a two-dose vaccine, said Dr R. N. Singh, of the Encephalitis Eradication Movement.
"Who is responsible for the children who died between 2006 and 2010IJ" Singh asked.In 2010 the vaccination drive suddenly stopped because funds dried up. The sanitation drive never fully started.
To make matters worse, in the 23 worst-affected districts in the state, only one hospital - the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur - is equipped to deal with the hundreds of sick children. They fill its 108-bed encephalitis ward.
"By the time they reach here, it's too late," said Dr. K.P. Kushwaha, who heads the hospital. "The response time in encephalitis attack should be quick. If the patient could reach hospital within 2-3 hours of attack his chances of survival are high. Otherwise the doctors cannot do anything," Dr Kushwaha said.
Doctors in the BRD Medical College too admit that lack of support from PHCs has aggravated the situation. "The state-run clinics in villages like Primary Health Centres (PHC) should give initial treatment to children. As medicines and treatments are not available in these clinics the parents are forced to take their children to BRD
Medical College. By the time they reach here it is too late," Dr Bharat, a senior resident in the encephalitis ward of BRD College said."It is very pathetic to see small children die or get disabled. Majority of the patients who come to us are in serious condition. The parents who can afford take his child to private nursing home. When the condition starts deteriorating the nursing home refers the case to us. And then, we cannot do anything," he said.