Heath sector of India has never been perfect or simply optimistic but the advent of new diseases is making it more susceptible to dangers than ever before. To cut a long story short, the Indian health sector has never been so hapless. What is the new onslaught then? Well, it is the Japanese encephalitis. Now, before we proceed further, it is crucial to get well-versed with Japanese encephalitis.

Japanese encephalitis, known as Japanese B encephalitis in the past to distinguish it from von Economo’s A encephalitis), is a disease brought about by the mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus. It is basically a virus from the family Flaviviridae. Domestic pigs and wild birds are reservoirs of the virus and as indicated by experts, any transmission to humans may lead to severe symptoms. One of the most important vectors of this disease is the mosquito Culex tritaeniorhynchus and this disease is most prevalent in Southeast Asia and the Far East.

Well, whatever may be its area of influence, it has claimed more than 500 lives in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by now and reports suggest children are facing the brunt of the disease to a great extent. If we care to take a look at a Union Health Ministry document, it gets discernible with no trouble that Uttar Pradesh is the worst affected with 23 of its districts having been declared ndemic. ‘Twenty-three districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh are endemic to Japanese encephalitis,’ the document said, adding that until November 16 this year, 476 people have died on account of the disease in the state.

What is the situation in Bihar then? It has come to the knowledge that in this poverty-ridden Indian state the number of deaths is no less than 30 this year and in excess of 140 are still undergoing treatment for this viral disease. It is to be noted, apart from this Japanese encephalitis, both these states contribute over 90 percent of India’s polio burden.

Last of all, even though the health ministry asserts that it has vaccinated 83 percent of the children belonging to the high risk group in 21 of the 23 endemic districts of Uttar Pradesh, the situation is far from over.