A team of National Institute of Virology (NIV),Pune,on Saturday reached Gayas premier government hospital where 85 deaths have been reported out of 389 admissions since this August. The NIV team is at the Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH) to take blood samples to decode non-Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases. Doctors in Gaya,however,said most cases were of JE. Hospitals in Bihar have the facility to conduct only the Elisa test of cerebral spinal fluid. The cent per cent confirmatory test Advanced Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR is available only with NIV,Pune. Besides,the Elisa test can only detect category I and II of JE. The test,however,cannot diagnose Category III cases that show same symptoms as the non-JE virus. In Muzaffarpur,52 patients,who died of suspected encephalitis this summer,were said to be of category IV. Despite the 85 deaths,which is on decline with the onset of winter,the ANMMCH management stressed that they were better placed in managing the disease with only 21.85 per cent deaths as against the global average of 40 per cent. As of now,the hospital has 20 encephalitis patients with three admitted in the last 72 hours; the last encephalitis death was reported four days ago. Over 90 per cent of the children,who are between three and 12 years of age,admitted in the hospital are from scheduled caste mushahars and other Dalit communities of Gaya,Aurangabad,Arwal and adjoining Jharkhands Chatra and Palamau districts. The hospital has so far referred three cases to Patna Medical College and Hospital and one to All India Institute of Medical Sciences,Delhi. The hospital also criticised the National Centre for Disease Control,Delhi,which has taken 30 blood samples from the hospital but is yet to give any report. Head of Department,pediatrics,ANMMCH,Dr A K Ravi said: We have been offering best services with limited staff. No patient has gone to any private hospital. There cannot be a sure-shot cure for encephalitis in the absence of absolute diagnosis. Dr Ravi said most cases are from areas where pigs vectors of JE virus are reared. He,however,said the Gaya cases have no parallel with the Muzaffarpur cases that fell under Category IV. Principal Secretary,Health Amarjit Sinha said though JE vaccination has been intensified,there is no guarantee of checking the disease due to the occurrence of non-JE virus as well.
