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Brain fever spreads to more districts

Shireen in Hyderabad

The brain fever (Japanese encephalitis) epidemic has spread to 17 out of 23 districts and the toll mounted to 178 in Andhra Pradesh even as Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu claimed on Monday that "the disease is witnessing a declining trend."

The director of health, in the health bulletin on the Japanese encephalitis issued on Monday evening, said that 16 fresh cases were reported during the day, while two children succumbed to the disease. This year, till Sunday (November 28), as many as 857 cases were reported with 176 deaths.

The chief minister held a video-conference with the district collectors, district medical and health officers, district panchayat officers and municipal commissioners of the 17 affected districts to review the steps being taken for the eradication of Japanese encephalitis in the state. He called for a massive awareness campaign to educate the people about the preventive steps to be taken.

Chandrababu Naidu directed the officials to "eliminate" country pigs "as they are the source of the disease" and instructed the authorities to provide alternative sources of livelihood to the families dependant on pig-rearing. He asked the district collectors to formulate proposals for the rehabilitation of such families.

The chief minister told the officials to extend financial assistance to girl patients under the Girl Child Protection Scheme. He asked the doctors of the primary health centres to make visits to the homes of the children who have recovered from brain fever and conduct physiotherapy for them.

The members of self-help groups like Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas and the Chief Minister's Empowerment of Youth programme will be entrusted the work of upkeep of sanitation in those affected areas where there is deficiency of sanitary workers.

Meanwhile, the local authorities continued pyrethrum spray-fogging operations, anti-larval operations and residuary spray operations in the 611 affected villages. As many as 40 million pills of homeopathic medicine -- Belladonna -- were distributed among the children and 30,000 doses of Japanese encephalitis vaccine were despatched to the affected districts so far. Two hundred and eighty seven medical teams and 1,244 para-medical teams are deployed in the field.

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