Bihar reports 3 acute encephalitis syndrome cases amid Coronavirus outbreak

Amid coronavirus outbreak, Bihar has now reported 9 cases of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome cases, also known as brain fever, which killed more than 300 children in the state last year, Last month, a three-year-old boy died due to acute encephalitis syndrome at ICU of state-run Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur around 48 hours after his admission, said Gopal Shankar Sahni, the head of pediatric department of the facility.

READ |  Bihar: Attack on health workers increases in last 36 hours, police warns of strict action

The SKMCH accounted for about 120 deaths due to AES last year. Another AES patient, a five-year-old girl of East Champaran district, is showing improvement, said the hospital's superintendent S K Shahi.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had taken a grim note of the fresh outbreak of AES and ordered that the proposed expansion of the pediatric ICU to 100 beds be expedited.

READ | COVID-19: 325 districts across India without any case, 27 districts report 0 for 14 days

Covid cases in Bihar

On Friday, three persons, including a six-month-old infant girl, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Bihar, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 83, a top official said on Friday. According to Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar, all the three cases reported late Thursday the baby girl besides a woman aged 21 years and a 55-year-old man have been reported from Munger district.

Hundreds of people are said to have taken part in the congregation at Bihar Sharif, the headquarters of Nalanda district, last month before the lockdown was announced. The Tablighi Jamaat has been in the eye of a controversy ever since its headquarters at Nizamuddin in Delhi emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19.

The district now has 17 cases, and is the second worst-affected in the state after Siwan where 24 people have tested positive. A 38-year-old resident of the district had died at AIIMS, Patna on March 21, a day before test reports confirmed that he was COVID-19 positive. The deceased had returned from Qatar a few weeks earlier. Several people, neighbours and relatives in Munger and Lakhisarai districts, and staff of a private hospital in Patna where he was briefly admitted before being referred to AIIMS, had ended up catching the contagion from the deceased.

India's count of COVID-19 cases has risen to 12,759, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday. Out of the total tally, 10,824 cases are active while 1,514 patients have been cured/discharged and migrated and 420 people have succumbed to the virus.

READ |  Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad booked for money laundering amid 'self-quarantine'

READ |  Coronavirus LIVE Updates