-The Wire Science Manika Bishunpur (Muzaffarpur, Bihar): Chunchun Devi stands alone in front of her hut in Manika Bishunpur village’s Mushahari tola in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district. Three of her children – two daughters and a son – are playing nearby. On June 11 last year, Chulhai Ram and Chunchun lost their 4.5-year-old daughter, Raveena, to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), locally known as chamki fever. She was the third of Chulhai and Chunchun’s...

-Hindustan Times An audit report by the accountant general has blamed lack of health policy to poor management of various government schemes for food, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, health, education and overall welfare for AES deaths in Bihar. Bihar does not have a health policy and its budget also does not focus on any specific area of attention in health sector despite the scourge of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) for over a...

  In the month of June this year, encephalitis related deaths in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district grabbed the headlines. Actually, most of the children, who were admitted or died at Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), hailed from East Champaran, Vaishali, Sitamarhi and Samastipur apart from Muzaffarpur. Unfortunately, till recently official data on the number of cases and deaths related to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) was unavailable for...

-The Indian Express Deaths in Muzaffarpur are due to chronic malnutrition Muzaffarpur in Bihar is famous for litchis and infamous for children dying due to annual seasonal brain disease outbreaks. The common brain diseases in children with high mortality are meningitis, encephalitis and encephalopathy. These three have clear-cut differences and very different treatments. Trained paediatricians know how to distinguish the three. If diagnostic criteria are not applied for various reasons, then...

-The Hindu It is imperative to promote community-based care rather than relying only on hospital services The deaths of 154 children in Bihar due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) has laid bare the precarious capacity of the State’s healthcare apparatus to handle outbreaks. AES has been linked to two factors: litchi consumption by starving children and a long, ongoing heat wave. As promises of bolstering the health infrastructure are being made, it...