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Published Date: 2012-06-12 21:36:09
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Japanese encephalitis & other - India (04): (BI), RFI
Archive Number: 20120612.1165900

JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS AND OTHER - INDIA (04): (BIHAR), REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
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Date: Mon 11 Jun 2012
Source: DNA [edited]
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_100-children-dead-57-other-affected-due-to-encephalitis_1701089

Altogether 100 children have died and 57 others were undergoing treatment at various hospitals due to outbreak of the acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in Bihar since May this year [2012], state's Health Minister Ashwani Chaube said on Monday [11 Jun 2012]. As many as 260 children contracted symptoms of the AES and of them 100 have died and 57 others were admitted in various hospitals for treatment, he told reporters. The remaining children were cured during treatment at the hospitals, Chaube said.

Giving the break-up [outbreak?], the Health Minister said that 93 children were admitted in the private Kejriwal hospital with symptoms of the AES and of them 32 died even as 24 others were recuperating there, while in the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), also located in Muzaffarpur, 16 children have died due to AES.

The death toll in the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH) stood at 10, while the figure at the PMCH in Patna stood at 42, he said.

Most of the deaths due to fever and related symptoms took place as the patients were brought to hospital in critical condition since the parents took them to quacks or undertook others means to cure them, the Health Minister said.

He said that the symptoms of the AES have been identified but it required tests of various dimensions to identity the specific symptom and it was possible only at the laboratory to identity viral-related symptoms. The state government had last year requested the Centre to set up such a laboratory in Bihar.

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ProMED-mail from HealthMap Alerts

[The encephalitis outbreak is accelerating. A report on 6 Jun 2012, indicated that there were 31 deaths, and the above report is of 100 deaths. The etiology of these cases is unspecified, although encephalitis is mentioned, perhaps due to Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infections as indicated in a 2 Jun 2012 report from this area in Bihar state (see ProMED-mail archive no. 20120604.1155306). Reports in previous years have indicated a minority of encephalitis cases were due to JEV infection and other cases as having been associated with contaminated water, suggesting enterovirus infections. There is no mention of that or of JEV in the above report. ProMED will be interested to learn of any laboratory results that indicate the etiology of these cases.

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map showing the location of Bihar state can be accessed at http://healthmap.org/r/1*O9. - Mod.TY]

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