The brain-corroding disease – encephalitis has acquired epidemic proportion in the seven odd districts of West Bengal, where at least 60 people have died due to it, state's Health Services director Biswaranjan Satpathy said on Monday.
Terming the situation ‘alarming’, Satpathy said, the sixty people died between July 7 and 20 alone. Chairing health officials meeting in north Bengal on Monday, he said the total of 344 people have been affected by the disease.
The situation had taken ominous turn when the doctors found that 24 of the 60 dead had been infected with the Japanese strain of encephalitis – the most lethal form of this disease, he said, lamenting that the North Bengal Medical College lacks facilities to test other forms of encephalitis.
Jalpaiguri district is badly hit by this disease because of the large number of piggeries – the source of Japanese encephalitis.
Compared to 2013 when the figure was only five, Satpathy said, the number of deaths due to Japanese encephalitis is much higher this year.
To handle the rush of patients at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, two doctors have been put on duty round the clock at the out patients department of the hospital, Satpathy informed. More such clinics in north Bengal, especially in Malda district would be established to tackle the soaring incident of this fatal disease..
