Why Rehana’s death will not figure in UP encephalitis records

The state, where the JE toll this year is already 700 plus, maintains that some 7,300 children have died of encephalitis in the last 27 years in eight districts that make the eastern belt.

When The Indian Express did a ground check in these districts, it found near unanimity among doctors, officials, health activists and NGOs on at least one count: the number of deaths was probably four times higher than official estimates.

Government figures, they point out, are based on entries in hospitals and the deaths there. This count doesn’t include those who die before they reach hospitals, those who leave hospitals but are made to sign papers stating ‘Leave Against Medical Advice’. And LAMA alone is a huge number.

Rehana’s death too doesn’t find mention in official records because she never managed to reach a government hospital.

The nearest medical help, a primary health centre, was a stone’s throw from her home in Tinbardaha village in Kushinagar. But it has been shut for three years. There’s a quack three kilometres away from Tinbardaha but his paracetamol drops don’t help beyond a point.

Rehana died when her father was carrying her on a cycle to a community health centre 12 km away.

In most villages, you come across a Rehana like story. And Dr K P Kushwaha, professor at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College and paediatrics department, pointed out: ‘‘Japanese Encephalitis doesn’t always kill. Twenty per cent of those who survive become physically and mentally handicapped.’’