Cuttack: In the wake of death of around 100 children due to suspected Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, the Directorate of Public Health has issued an advisory to all district headquarters hospitals (DHHs) across the state.
The Directorate of Public Health has claimed that at least 17 districts of Odisha are AES-prone. It has asked the DHH authorities to step up surveillance to detect AES cases in the initial stage.
The advisory has put emphasis on nine-point measures to fight the deadly disease. The authorities of all 30 DHHs have been asked to intensify weekly surveillance to detect AES cases. Moreover, they have been told to pull out all the stops to make AES vaccination programme a success.
The advisory directed the DHH authorities to submit blood test reports to the Directorate of Public Health on a daily basis. In the advisory, the directorate has claimed that the state government has set up sentinel site laboratories in all 30 districts and in two cities – Bhubaneswar and Rourkela—to test blood samples for AES. This apart, the state government has established a central laboratory at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. Besides, blood samples can be tested at Regional Medical Research Centre in Bhubaneswar, said the advisory.
It is worth mentioning here that at least 34 children had died of encephalitis in Malkangiri district in 2016. According to sources, altogether 2,331 children have been diagnosed with encephalitis in Odisha between January 1, 2018 and April 2019 while 11 kids have died of the disease.
“Children within the age group of five to 15 years are vulnerable to AES. The disease is more prevalent in rainy season. Fever and vomiting are two symptoms of encephalitis. Patients usually fall unconscious. Around 30 per cent patients succumb to the disease,” said Pravakar Mishra, the head of Paediatrics department at Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Hospital at Baripada.
Mishra had conducted a survey on AES in 2014 and found at least 136 blood samples out of 834 samples as positive for the disease. “My survey report has been published in Global Journal of Infectious Diseases. Human beings, pigs and birds are the primary carriers of encephalitis. Awareness among the masses and universal vaccination can help prevent AES,” Mishra said.