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A deadly break out of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome in Bihar, which has left over a hundred children dead since beginning of June, has pressured the Centre to contact trace every case.
The Union Health Ministry, in a press release on Thursday, said that the multi-disciplinary team will collect clinical, nutritional and epidemiological information from AES patients hospitalised since May 18.
“Blood, urine and CSF samples will be collected from these patients to rule out a series of infections. The team will also conduct case-control study, by taking household and village controls to reconfirm the role of missing meals and litchi consumption including the quantity,” the press statement said.
“It is premature to blame litchi consumption as a reason for this season’s outbreak. While we have not been able to ascertain the causes of deaths as of now, we should be able to get a better understanding of the causes in two to three days,” Chander Shekhar, Additional Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), told BusinessLine.
Fact-finding report
Meanwhile a fact-finding report submitted to the State government by the Bihar chapter of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) stated that the talk of establishing a virology lab has been going on for a decade.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reiterated on Thursday that “An ICMR team of experts has been deployed at the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) for making the virology lab operational at the earliest.”
“The team is reviewing the case records of discharged and deceased AES patients at SKMCH using a standardised tool to know the reasons for mortality. A similar exercise will be undertaken at the Kejriwal Hospital,” Harsh Vardhan said.
He further said that the State has been instructed to switch to daily surveillance and monitoring for detecting early warning signs of the disease.
“The State government has started a social audit along with active case finding campaign through house to house survey and moving the prospective patients to the nearest Primary Health Centre (PHC) for early intervention. Surprise checks are also being conducted at the PHCs by the Senior Deputy Collectors (SDC).
““Additionally, the early morning inspection of Anganwadi Centres is also being undertaken by SDCs and Child development Project Officers (CDPOs). They are also distributing of ORS to each house in the affected villages,” he stated.
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