Encephalitis takes a heavy toll in UP
As the dreaded encephalitis continues to claim many lives in the districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the authorities and medical experts remain mute spectators owing largely to lack of adequate resources to combat the disease, while political parties are busy indulging in a blame game in a bid to gain political mileage.
The disease, which has assumed an epidemic form, has so far claimed over 475 lives, mostly children, while hundreds others are undergoing treatment at the BRD medical college hospital at Gorakhpur and elsewhere.
Although the disease has been taking its toll in the eastern UP districts, mainly around Gorakhpur, for the past three decades, very little has been done by successive governments both at the centre and the state to check its spread and take preventive measures.
While there is virtually no facility at the district to diagnose and treat encephalitis, the Gorakhpur medical college finds itself overwhelmed with the rush of patients. “Burdened doctors and para-medics have been leaving the hospital as they cannot cope with the pressure,” officials say.
According to experts, the main killer is not Japanese Encephalitis (JE) as was being said. “JE accounts for only seven per cent of the deaths...90 per cent deaths are caused by entero virus for which there is no vaccine,” claimed Union minister for health Ghulam Nabi Azad, when he visited the patients at the hospital recently.
Prevention is the way
It is said that it was mainly a water-borne infection but it is very lethal. “Since there is no vaccine, prevention is the only way,” experts say. The authorities are now focusing on clean water and sanitation.
“The water source is contaminated with faeces,” they point out adding that they were now working towards ensuring safe water and sanitation in the encephalitis-affected villages. But the task is quite difficult if not impossible, they admit.
Alarmed at the deaths and the callous attitude of the authorities, the Allahabad high court has also directed the state government to convene a meeting of experts to discuss ways to combat the disease and slammed officials for not making available specialised treatment to the patients.
“Only three out of 68 JE patients who were admitted in the hospitals last month could be treated by the experts,” the court said adding that many posts of doctors have been lying vacant for a long time.
The disease is a double whammy for the patients. Those, who survive, live with scars for the rest of their lives. “The survivors display symptoms of behavioural and functional problems,” experts said.
Many patients, who survived, suffered from irritability and have become short tempered, they pointed out adding that such patients require rehabilitation but the facilities are simply not there. The authorities are mulling opening a special school for the encephalitis survivors to help them in their rehabilitation.
Shifting the blame
The political class, as always, is busy shifting the blame. The centre has said that the state government did not utilise the funds given to it to combat the disease while the latter has accused the centre of not providing any help. “UP has not properly implemented the vaccination programme as a result of which the problem has aggravated,” Azad said.
Chief campaigner of the encephalitis eradication campaign, Dr R N Singh blames both the centre and the state governments for this situation. “Plans were made to combat the disease but politics did not allow their implementation,” he said.
Dr Singh and his team plan to make encephalitis deaths an election issue in the next Assembly polls in the state due in 2012 to put pressure on officials to take concrete measures to eradicate the disease.
“The campaign will start three months before the next polls…the list of demands will be sent to all village panchayats, which will seek replies from the candidates,” Dr Singh said.
Recently, thousands of people from the affected area had written letters in blood to the president, the prime minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and others to draw their attention towards the problem.
