A team of National Institute of Virology (NIV),Pune,on Saturday reached Gayas premier government hospital where 85 deaths have been reported out of 389 admissions since August. The team is at Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMCH) to take blood samples to detect non-Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases. While doctors said most cases were JE,hospitals in Bihar have the facility to conduct only the Elisa test of cerebral spinal fluid. The 100 per cent confirmatory test Advanced Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR is available only with NIV,Pune. Besides,the Elisa test can only detect category I and II of JE that are marked by high fever,convulsions and occasional vomiting. The test,however,cannot diagnose Category III cases that show same symptoms as the non-JE virus. In Muzaffarpur,52 patients,who died of suspected encephalitis this summer,were said to be of category IV cases. The ANMCH management stressed that they were better placed in managing the disease with only 21.85 per cent deaths as against the global average of 40 per cent. The hospital has 20 encephalitis patients with three admitted in the last 72 hours; the last encephalitis death was reported four days ago. The hospital has so far referred three cases to Patna Medical College and Hospital and one to All India Institute of Medical Sciences,Delhi. The hospital blamed the National Centre for Disease Control,Delhi,which has already taken 30 blood samples from the hospital but is yet to give its reports. Over 90 per cent children between three and 12 years admitted in the hospital are from scheduled caste mushahars and other dalit communities of Gaya,Aurangabad,Arwal and adjoining Jharkhand districts of Chatra and Palamu.
