Deaths of children in Bihar because of Encephalitis

It has been shocking to read that over 100 children have died in Muzaffurpur and nearby districts in Bihar.( https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/encephalitis-fever-bihar-1550297-2019-06-17). They were affected by Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

On checking the central government data on this disease( https://www.cbhidghs.nic.in/WriteReadData/l892s/Chapter%203.pdf) , the deaths over the last few years have been primarily in the Assam, Bihar, UP & West Bengal as per table below:

In 2016, the Other States is high, because there were 115 deaths in Orissa. This was also the year where 125 children died in one hospital in Gorakhpur, UP which happened to be the constituency of the Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath.

Even in the previous years, according to a research report “https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5644291/” between 2008 and 2014, there were 44,000 cases reported over 6000 deaths from encephalitis, mainly in UP and Bihar.

While Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the leading cause of acute encephalitis, there could be other causes including other viruses. While there is a vaccine for JEV which is being administered to children, clearly the outbreaks indicate that there are other unidentified causes. In fact, one of the theories is that a toxin in litchi fruit can cause this – as Muzaffarpur is a litchi fruit growing region, and cases tend to peak during the harvesting season.

The central government has apparently allocated over 4000 crores over the last few years specifically to address Acute Encephalitis Syndrome. The number of deaths across these years and the current epidemic in Bihar, clearly demonstrates that more needs to be done on an urgently basis to prevent this!