Over 500 AES deaths reported this year have been owed to AES or Japanese Encephalitis (JE). Scores of children who died in Gorakhpur are believed to be victims of JE.
Scrub typhus as a cause of AES
HIGHLIGHTS
- Over 500 AES deaths have been reported this year
- This deadly disease has been affecting the entire UP and other states
- There is an urgent need to ban the open defecation
Over 500 AES deaths reported this year have been owed to AES or Japanese Encephalitis (JE). Scores of children who died in Gorakhpur are believed to be victims of JE. What's curious is the fact that this deadly disease has been affecting the entire UP and other states since 1978 and its exact cause has still not been identified clearly. As a result, doctors have engaged themselves in dealing with its symptoms. But studies conducted over the last 2 years have stated that scrub typhus is responsible for this disease.
Data from website of the Directorate of National Vector-Borne Disease Control Program (NVBDCP) shows that since 1st of January to 13th of August 2017, 1208 cases of AES were reported in UP of which, 152 patients could not survive.
In Assam, 1534 cases were reported of which 128 patients died due to AES. Also, 482 cases of JE were reported out of which 67 patients could not survive.
Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Basti, Siddharthanagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Deoria and Mau were greatly affected.
NVBDCP data showed that 2010 was the year when UP reported 3540 cases of AES, 494 of which could not survive. JE killed 59 patients in the same year.
JE and AES cases have not just been reported in UP, states of Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Odisha and West Bengal have also fallen victim.
Dr RN Singh, working for the prevention of encephalitis says that there is an urgent need to ban the open defecation of India Mark hand pumps if we wish to eradicate the disease completely.
He also said that illiteracy and backwardness exists in east UP. "Because of lack of awareness in the region, eastern UP has become a hub of communicable diseases."
CM of UP, Yogi Adityanath stated that action will be taken against all those who will be found guilty for deaths in the government hospitals. The Union government also announces that a project worth Rs.85 crores will be undertaken for setting up a regional medical centre in Gorakhpur to conduct researches into children's diseases.
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