Japanese Encephalitis menace should have been prevented
Japanese Encephalitis menace should have been prevented
New Delhi October 9, 2011 : Rashtriya Lok Dal General Secretary and Mathura Member of Parliament Shri Jayant Chaudhary launched a scathing attack on the Mayawati regime
in Uttar Pradesh for embezzling crores of rupees in the name of containing the deadly encephalitis, Japanese Encephalitis, and failing to check the threat posed by the preventable disease,which has claimed the lives of over 500 children in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, particularly in Gorakhpur.
“While bolstering the medical infrastructure in the affected districts for proper specialized treatment of the patients is necessary, prevention should be the main focus. The Uttar Pradesh Government has announced a 100-bed special ward for Japanese encephalitis at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, sanctioning Rs 18 crore, but what about vaccination? The State has purportedly vaccinated lakhs of people in the affected areas and has spent crores on the vaccination drives to contain the Japanese Encephalitis. But where are the results? The amount has been looted from the state exchequer. This is a human disaster and reflects the misgovernance and the rot that has set in the State’s public health machinery.”
Japanese Encephalitis, a water/mosquito borne viral disease, has been striking with alarming regularity in the eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh. The public health system has collapsed in the region, which is one of the poorest in India. Uttar Pradesh with 23 affected districts and Gorakhpur as the epicentre. Two health ministers have quit in Uttar Pradesh on account of corruption in NHRM funds. Two senior medical officials have been murdered and it is alleged that the murders were orchestrated as part of a ‘cover-up’ conspiracy.
Jayant Chaudhary has been emphasizing the need to undertake measures to eradicate Japanese Encephalitis in the country. He had raised the matter under rule 377 in the Lok Sabha on 26/0/2010. Drawing the attention of the august House, Shri Chaudhary had said “Whilst attention has been given to recent flu outbreaks such as bird flu or swine flu, Japanese Encephalitis is an epidemic the Govt. has failed to address in the past decade. Bihar, Assam and Tamil Nadu are badly affected and Uttar Pradesh accounts for the largest number of deaths, with 556 deaths in 2009.”
“Assurances in this house by the minister and a declared intention to form a special research group under the ICMR to study the virus, and to run an ‘election’ type campaign for eradication, have no visible impact on the ground, The vaccine for encephalitis should be administered around three months before monsoons, but the administration has not taken such a step and already, hundreds of cases are being reported. I demand an urgent campaign including both NUHM and NRHM that includes PHC level neutralization of Japanese Encephalitis.”
The young MP expressed his frustration that despite his intervention in the Lok Sabha, the epidemic has raged again. “We have failed to protect our rural poor from this dreaded disease. The centre must intervene in the matter urgently, and ensure that remedial steps are taken, as the State Government has failed in its basic duties. An investigation must be launched to look into the repeated failures and bring out the corruption that is behind the failure to immunize properly.”