NEW DELHI, India, June 26 (NNN-PTI) – With more than 150 children dead and many more infected by the outbreak of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), the eastern Indian state of Bihar has hit the headlines over the past few weeks.
The infected children were admitted to Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) and the Kejriwal Hospital in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar.
The central government sent teams of specialised doctors from Delhi to Muzaffarpur to assess the situation and find the causes of the disease.
Dr. Arun Shah, a Muzaffarpur-based paediatrician, who has done research on AES said, this year, there has been an epidemic of AES. “It is not a new thing as the outbreak has been recurring since 1995, with varying degrees of severity. The outbreak began in May and attains its peak form in June, which coincides with the harvesting season of litchis,” he said.
Children from the marginalised section of society, who are malnourished are at a greater risk of AES, Shah said. “Malnutrition triggered by the consumption of unripe litchis by the malnourished children in the orchards are making them infected.”
Dr. Shah said, “The children belong to the poorest of poor class in the affected villages, eat unripe litchis during the day and they don’t get to have dinner after reaching home because they lack the means for full meals. The unripe fruit contains a high concentration of the toxin called methylene cyclopropyl glycine (MCPG), which triggers hypoglycemia (lower blood sugar levels), if consumed by a child with a malnourished body. These children play out in the day and sleep in the night without eating anything and, typically, they fell ill the next morning in the early hours with serious symptoms.”
According to him, chronic malnutrition is a “predisposing factor triggered by consumption of unripe litchi by hungry and starving children.”
Shah also said that the outbreak of the disease can be prevented by taking certain precautions, like by not allowing children to play in the orchards in this season or not allowing them to sleep without food and in case, AES symptoms are detected, then within four hours of the onset of it the children should be administered with glucose.
There has been widespread outrage and protests at the apparent callousness or shortcoming on the part of both the state and central governments in dealing with the situation.
The Indian authorities are rushing special teams of doctors to the affected areas in Bihar to contain the disease.– NNN-PTI