Japanese Encephalitis and AES claim 252 lives in Assam

At least 252 lives have been claimed by Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Assam this year, a senior health department official today said.
Both diseases have affected 1,573 persons with 415 suffering from JE and 1,158 from AES, Joint Director Health Services-Malaria Dr B K Barua told PTI.
69 persons have died due to Japanese Encephalitis, while AES has claimed 183 lives, Dr Barua said.
24 of the 27 districts in the state were affected by encephalitis with the worst-hit ones being Tinsukia, North Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Dhemaji and Golaghat in Upper Assam and Barpeta, Nalbari, Darrang, Kamrup and Kamrup (Metro) in lower Assam, health department officials said.

To control further spread of the disease, the health department has drawn up an action plan, including intensive fogging in the affected areas, vaccination drives and awareness campaigns by involving the local panchayats.
Steps have been taken to ensure adequate supply of vaccines and medicines to the big and district hospitals and other health centres as well as to procure laboratory testing kits for quick diagnosis of cases, the officials said.
Directing the Public Health and Engineering Department to speed up conversion work of shallow tube wells to deep tube wells, the government has also asked the department to provide clean drinking water to check the disease.

Reviewing the situation, the Chief Minister has issued instructions to ensure that there was no shortage of medicines and to procure all necessary drugs, specially the life saving ones, the officials added.