Encephalitis toll rises to 152, spreads to 20 of 38 Bihar districts; scare in MP

Patna: The death toll of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) has reached 152 in Bihar, reported Hindustan Times. The medical officials stated that the disease has spread to 20 of the state’s 38 districts.

“AES has spread to 20 districts of Bihar but the total number of cases has come down. The death toll due to the disease has reached 152,” Bihar’s principal secretary (health) Sanjay Kumar said, adding that one fresh AES case was reported in the last 36 hours.

On Sunday, a portion of the roof outside the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at SKMCH collapsed. “A patch of plaster from the roof fell. Nobody was injured. It’s not inside any ward,” news agency ANI reported quoting the hospital’s superintendent Sunil Kumar Shahi.

Madhya Pradesh health officials are also on alert after a man said doctors at a private hospital told him his eight-year-old son, who died on Sunday, was suffering from AES.

The boy’s father Ibrahim Khan said: “The doctors at the community health centre at Khategoan told me that my son was suffering from brain fever. I took him to a private hospital where a doctor said that he might be suffering from Chamki Bukhar [as AES is known locally in MP]. I admitted him to MY Hospital Saturday and he died on Sunday.”

The doctors at MY Hospital, however, did not confirm if the child was suffering from AES as they were still awaiting for his reports.

State health minister Tulsi Silawat said the boy’s blood samples will be sent to Pune’s National Institute of Virology to ascertain if he died due to AES.