An exigency health alert stares at Odisha. Encephalitis, including Acute and Japanese, has emerged the number one killer in State in year 2016, eclipsing even pneumonia which was number 1 killer in 2015.
Though Malaria is still griping the State with epidemic proportion with a whopping 4.5 lakh or approximately 1 per cent of population having been tested with malaria positive in 2016 vis-à-vis around 4.4 lakh in 2015, in fatalities, it is encephalitis that ruled the mortality chart in the State last year.
According to the latest data available with State Health Directorate, a high of around 337 deaths last year in the State were attributed to encephalitis. When Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) accounts for 115 fatalities in 2016, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) took burden of 42 deaths and another 180 fatalities were due to encephalitis. In contrast, deaths owing to malaria stood at mere 77 in 2016.
Pneumonia shared death burden with a count of 322 in 2016, reveals the data. What is worrying is Odisha is probably the only State in country to post a stupendous rise in AES and JE cases in 2016. Data shows when the AES cases in 2016 rose by a high of 66 per cent, the JE cases have risen by an astounding 600 per cent last year.
Together, data reveals, Odisha recorded a total of around 1,812 encephalitis cases in 2016. The lethality hiding here is the fatality rate in Odisha in 2016 in encephalitis stood at a national high of around 18.5 per cent.
Significantly, Odisha had hit the national headlines last year for serial child deaths in Malkangiri, and which also had a political toll on the ruling BJD when it lost to the BJP in the panchayat polls. Data for 2017 reveals continuance of the trend as till May end Odisha has reported a total of over 510 encephalitis cases and the death burden for the same period stood at over 60.
The case fatality rate still stands at a high of around 12. Encephalitis is the only disease that records such a high case fatality rate in Odisha.
Other giant killers in Odisha, like malaria and pneumonia, have a case fatality rate of below 1, which shows the diseases are well under control.
The danger sign for the State is cases of encephalitis are set to rise high in September - October. While the JE is a mosquito borne disease and could be controlled via vector control and vaccination, the AES and other encephalitis are not so easily targeted.
Significantly, when the JE cases in Odisha in 2017 is mere 3 vis-à-vis over 500 AES/encephalitis cases till May end, the message it drives home is unsafe drinking water is responsible for spurt in the cases in the State as entero-viruses are the causative agents of the AES and its ilk. Moreover, district wise analysis reveals that encephalitis cases have been reported from areas with poor access to potable water and high mosquito densities.
Importantly, the State Health Department has not taken any review meeting this year so far despite such ominous signs, observed officials.