-Down to Earth Open defecation along the Gandak in Uttar Pradesh causes the disease in Bihar, says study Bihar all set to check encephalitis Open defecation along the Gandak in Uttar Pradesh causes the disease in Bihar, says study TIRED of failures by researchers to identify the virus that causes acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), the Bihar government, along with Unicef and the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRI), has sent...

-The Times of India AURANGABAD/ PUNE: An 11-month-old boy from Maharashtra's Beed district has been found infected with the vaccine derived polio virus (VDPV). This is the first such case in the state and the third in the country since March 2012. Health officials said the boy's stool sample tested positive for VDPV on June 1. "The child has been ill for prolonged periods, indicating the possibility of immunodeficiency," an official said. The...

-The Indian Express Only the names of the patients have changed. Acute encephalitis syndrome is back in Bihar, hitting the same districts as every year, its victims once again mostly children of Mahadalit communities living in various degrees of poverty, their resistance levels lowered by malnutrition and exposure to heat. And the government response has been repetitive to the point of being ritualistic. It has asked for Central assistance and set up...

India has recorded its first case of polio caused by a vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) this year in a five-month-old child in Murshidabad district of Bengal but the country remains free of the wild poliovirus. A polio surveillance laboratory in Calcutta has found that the child from Lalbag block in Murshidabad was infected by VDPV, which occurs when the weakened virus in the oral polio vaccine (OPV) mutates over time, and regains...

The state government has sought technical advice and assistance on its proposed plan to carry out mass vaccination ahead of monsoon next year in Gaya and adjoining districts to stop outbreak of Japanese encephalitis and acute encephalitis syndrome. Sanjay Kumar, the secretary of the state health department, said the state was keen on going for a mass immunisation and regular immunisation for Japanese encephalitis as a preventive measure next year. “We...