When Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and MP Rahul Gandhi visit Rae Bareli tomorrow to check on the spread of Japanese Encephalitis, chances are that they will get to see only a part of the true picture. For Sonia’s constituency is quite a distance from Kushinagar’s Kusmaha, where around 150 children have died last month. None of the deaths have showed up on official registers.According to T N Dhole of the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, the official figure of 400 is just a fraction of the statewide toll.‘‘Not less than 10,000,’’ says Dhole, who visited the worst-hit Gorakhpur and the surrounding districts of UP, with his team of experts.In Kusmaha, 100 died before they reached a primary healthcare centre, claim villagers. Around 50 died after they left the hospitals of Gorakhpur and Kushinagar—they never received any treatment there, they say.‘‘Thirty-five children had died last year. This year, the toll is already 150. The next year’s figure is beyond our imagination,’’ says Chaukhi, a village resident.In GRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, only 12 children from Kusmaha have been recorded as casualties of Japanese Encephalitis—48 children are under treatment there.But then, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Kushinagar, T N Chand, admits the department was unable to record all deaths. ‘‘As per our records, only 12 children have died. We know that many more have died in villages. But how can we record them?’’ he says.Services at Public Healthcare Centres are worse, say villagers. ‘‘A doctor at the nearest PHC in Ramkola block charges Rs 40 just to write the prescription. Where can we get money?’’ asks Nebulal, who lost his daughter to JE two days ago.Says Dr Y D Singh, former head GRD Medical College’s pediatrics department in Gorakhpur: ‘‘The problem is that the ministers and officers only visit the GRDMC. They don’t want to go to the villages in Kushinagar or Maharajganj, where hundreds of children have died. They count the deaths that take place in hospitals. But many more are dying elsewhere’’.And despite Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s claims three weeks ago that anti-mosquito measures such as fogging has been started in affected areas, the villagers of Kusmaha are yet to see any such action on their waterlogged paddy fields sprayed.Chief Secretary Neera Yadav says piggeries—pigs are potential carriers—would be relocated to the outskirts of villages. ‘‘The owners of pigs have been served notices to find out other places at least 10 kms away from the residential areas,’’ say government officials.But Kusmaha still has 100 pigs, the potential carriers of JE virus. ‘‘We have not received any notice. Even if we get any such instruction, we cannot go away from a place where we have been living since centuries”, said Bhashet, who has about a dozen pigs. His five-year-old son Dharmendra is suffering from suspected JE.
