Notwithstanding the positivity rate of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in Uttar Pradesh declining to 0.7 per cent in 2014, from 36 per cent in 2006, and 96 deaths due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) reported in 2014 ( January till date ), the stress is now more on containing the dreaded disease at primary and secondary levels. Though there have been no deaths in Uttar Pradesh from JE in 2014, there have been reports of re-emergence of new JE cases.
According to field studies conducted by Government agencies and medical officers, 39 UP districts are endemic to JE, but it has been in Purvanchal (Eastern Uttar Pradesh) where the disease has assumed deadly proportions in seven districts of Gorakhpur and Basti Divisions where thousands of children have succumbed to it. Experts have calculated that in the last 30 years the killer disease has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 children.
The Managing Director of the National Health Mission in Uttar Pradesh, Amit Ghosh said that the renewed emphasis is on how to save lives of the children and to prevent permanent disability for which facilities have been created at the secondary and primary level. Mr. Ghosh said at the tertiary level there is the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur where a new 100bed ward with state of the art ventilators has been added to the 56bed ward for Encephalitis patients.
Addressing a workshop on AES and JE in Lucknow on Thursday, Mr. Ghosh said to contain the disease at the secondary level, 100 beds for Encephalitis patients in nine districts of the State. Since the seven districts of Gorakhpur and Basti divisions are considered to be “high risk” areas, 100 Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres have been upgraded as Encephalitis Treatment Centres (ETC). “Here facilities for treatment of AES and JE cases would be available round the clock”, the Mission Director said.
About four to six beds at the PHCs and CHCs would be for the Encephalitis patients.
About 238 ambulances of the “108” and “102” ambulance services have been attached to the ETCs for transporting the AES/JE patients in the seven districts of Gorakhpur and Basti divisions. Mr. Ghosh said 450 staff members, including drivers and technicians have been trained by the State Health Department on how to deal with the patients. Referring to the “State level supportive supervision”, the Mission Director said 25 teams have been constituted for the purpose and in July two rounds of the PHCs and CHCs in the two divisions were completed by the teams.
Mr. Ghosh said frontline workers of the Health Department would be given an incentive of Rs. 100 per case for “fever tracking”. (The first symptom of the disease is high fever followed by convulsion). “Emergency transport system and frontline workers have been added to the facilities”, Mr. Ghosh added.
The difference between AES and JE was emphasized by the participants at the workshop, including BS Aurora, Advisor, NHM and Anil Mishra, also of the NHM. While AES is a “group of symptoms”, JE is a component of AES, it was said. The AES was defined as acute onset of fever and a change in mental status, Japanese Encephalitis is a severe disabling viral disease spread by infected mosquitoes. JE affects the central nervous system.
