Published 07:59 IST, March 28th 2020
One Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) case reported in Bihar's Muzaffarpur
One Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) case was reported in a three and a half-year-old boy at Sri Krishna Medical College & Hospital (SKMCH) in Bihar on Friday
- India News
- 2 min read
One Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) case was reported in a three and a half-year-old boy at Sri Krishna Medical College & Hospital (SKMCH) in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Friday. Earlier in July 2019, AES had claimed 142 lives in Muzaffarpur district.
As per official data, 121 deaths were reported at the government-run SKMCH, which handled the largest number of patients in the district, while 21 deaths were confirmed at the Kejriwal Hospital. AES is a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms such as high fever, vomiting and in extreme cases, brain dysfunction, seizure, and inflammation of the heart and kidney.
Special unit for tackling AES
According to reports, the Union Health Ministry has offered to build a special unit for tackling Acute Encephalitis Syndrome cases in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, which has emerged as the epicenter of the outbreak of a disease that has killed hundreds of children in the region over the years.
The unit will be built as part of Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana - a programme aimed at creating regional AIIMS but also supporting up-gradation of existing government medical colleges in the states, the reports stated.
Also, a high-level team sent by the Centre to study the deaths had established a co-relation with day temperature exceeding 40 degrees Celsius over three days at a stretch coupled with constantly high night temperature with a spike in the disease.
(With agency inputs)
Updated 07:59 IST, March 28th 2020
