With 41 children falling prey to the ‘mystery disease' ravaging North Bihar, the Muzaffarpur district administration on Sunday recommended that the State government invoke the Epidemic Diseases Act throughout the afflicted area. While 41 is the official death toll, unconfirmed reports from different pockets of the Tirhut division put the figure at 48.
On Sunday, the District Magistrate and the Civil Surgeon sent a letter to the State Health Department, recommending that Muzaffarpur be declared an epidemic-zone.
None of the 18 samples sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune has tested positive for Japanese encephalitis (JE), the Nipahvirus (after Nipah in Malaysia) or the Chandipura virus (after the village in Maharashtra's Nagpur division).
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A five-member expert committee has been constituted to formulate the kind of treatment to be administered in the district's afflicted blocks.