Bihar Cabinet approves pucca houses for AES affected regions of Muzaffarpur

The Bihar Cabinet has approved the construction of pucca houses for eligible candidates under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural (PMAY-R) in five regions of the Muzaffarpur district, which bore the brunt of the acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) outbreak last year.

Apart from the construction of pucca houses, 13 other agendas were also approved in the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday.

They included the renovation of more than 7,000 wells in the state and upgradation of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna, among others.

Earlier in July 2019, AES had claimed 142 lives in Muzaffarpur district.

As per official data, 121 deaths were reported at the government-run Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), which handled the largest number of patients in the district, while 21 deaths were confirmed at the Kejriwal Hospital.

AES is a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms such as high fever, vomiting and in extreme cases, brain dysfunction, seizure, and inflammation of the heart and kidney.