Odisha: Japanese Encephalitis fear looms large after death of 6 infants due to unknown disease

The death of six infants, who lost their lives within a span of 15 days due to an unknown disease has brought back horrors of Japanese Encephalitis that took Bihar by a storm earlier this year.

While the cause of the deaths was attributed to some unknown disease, sources indicated the symptoms to be similar to those of deadly Japanese Encephalitis which claimed the lives of over 100 kids in 2016 in Odisha.

All six deaths were reported from Kalimela hospital in MV-79 area of Tamanapalli village in Malkangiri district.

Malkangiri district was the worst-hit during the outbreak of dreaded Japanese Encephalitis in the state in November 2016. The disease returned to haunt the state in 2017 as well, with 510 encephalitis cases reported during the first half of the year.

Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Dr Ajay Kumar Baitharu, along with a team of doctors visited Tamanapalli village to take stock of the situation first hand and collect samples.

CDMO Ajay Kumar negated speculation surrounding the deaths saying the deaths have occurred over a period of five months from 19th June 2019 to 8th November and not in the past 15 days.

Dr Ajay Kumar attributed it to multiple factors including malnutrition among mothers and bronchial pneumonia.

Most of the infants who died reported high fever, vomiting, cough and cold. Two of the infants, he added, were also suffering from low birth weight. "Such children are susceptible to infections," Dr Kumar said.

Mahesh, a local resident said, "all the infants had complained of fever, cold, cough and vomiting. We don't know the reason behind the deaths. Infants are dying within a span of 2-3 days regularly."

"Doctors are visiting our village regularly but are unable to ascertain the reason behind these frequent deaths. They are not doing anything concrete to stop this," he added.

A medical officer, however, maintained that the assessment could not be done as the parents were away. He added that five infants with cough and cold symptoms were being monitored and malaria tests were conducted on them which was found to be negative.

Meanwhile, a team of doctors from Koraput hospital has reached Kalimela Hospital to review the situation. They will review the blood test reports and other details before meeting CDMO Ajay Kumar.