At least 146 deaths in a few weeks: India is currently experiencing an outbreak of encephalitis. Most of the victims in the state of Bihar in the North-East of the country were younger than seven years, according to the competent Ministry of health. Therefore, 129 children died alone in a single hospital in the district of Muzaffarpur.
The inflammation of the brain is most often caused by viruses, less often by bacteria and fungi.
During the June to October duration of the rainy season, the risk of encephalitis is very high, because it is more common to infections. The Region in India was the least affected in 2013 by a similar outbreak of the disease. At the time, 350 people, most of them children, died.
What are the factors which trigger the outbreak and how the children have been infected, is still unclear. Some Doctors see the low blood sugar lack of undernourished children as the main cause of death.
The Indian government has sent to New Delhi from specialists and additional medical personnel to Muzaffarpur in Bihar’s capital, Patna, in order to get the outbreak in control. Of more than 600 children with symptoms of the disease might leave after a treatment, about half of the hospital, said Sanjay Kumar from the Ministry of health of Bihar.