82 children have died in Magadh division Bihar is in the grip of yet another lethal outbreak of viral encephalitis, which has claimed the lives of 82 children in the Magadh division so far. The latest death was reported on Sunday. The division's only government hospital, the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College Hospital, has been swamped with 383 cases of encephalitis, with an average of six cases pouring in each day. This is...

-The Indian Express   In an apparent attack on Team Anna, Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi today said that corruption cannot be eradicated by mere slogans, and those creating a “hue and cry” should look within. Sonia was forced to cancel her scheduled rally at Gauchar Chamoli (Uttarakhand) because of “a Viral Fever” today and in her speech read out at the venue, she underlined that her government was committed to...

Absence of preventive measures and affordable and accessible health care leads to nearly 500 encephalitis deaths in Uttar Pradesh. IT is a strange paradox. In a country that aspires to be a superpower and boasts of rapid economic growth, 488 children died in a State, Uttar Pradesh, from encephalitis alone this year. It is nothing less than a national shame and tragedy. In six districts of Bihar, close to 200 children...

-The Telegraph   The outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in and around Ranchi has assumed pandemic proportions, with authorities at Ranchi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) reporting 12 child deaths since August 16 till date. Moreover, 36 among the 81 children admitted to the state-run hospital have been confirmed to be suffering from the mosquito-borne viral disease. All 36 are children, between the age group of five and 11 years. Japanese encephalitis, marked by high...

NDM-1, a result of large scale misuse of antibiotics, says dean A recent survey in the Sassoon Hospital here showed that 20 out of 3,172 patients were carrying the superbug, NDM-1 gene. Sixty-six per cent of the patients also showed multidrug resistance. While it is not a cause for immediate worry, experts say, the high level of resistance to drugs could mean that soon there will be no antibiotics which can...