Infants and elderly particularly at risk from viral encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain
PATNA, India (AlertNet) - A mystery disease which has perplexed doctors and killed at least 30 children and two adults in eastern India over the last nine days has been identified as a strain of encephalitis, medical experts said on Thursday.
Doctors treating patients in the state of Bihar had been trying to identify the illness but their preliminary investigations could not confirm the disease was encephalitis.
"We can say the reason of the death of the children is definitely encephalitis but at this stage we can’t say what sort of encephalitis it is," said Dr I.P. Chaudhary, a medical expert from the health ministry in New Delhi.
"The type of virus of the disease can be ascertained only after a detailed clinical test," said Chaudhary, who was sent to Bihar to help investigate the origin of the deaths.
Viral encephalitis is inflammation of the brain and symptoms include high fever, headache, stiff neck and back, vomiting, confusion and, in severe cases, seizures, paralysis and coma, says the World Health Organisation.
Infants and elderly people are particularly at risk from the virus, which is often transmitted through insect bites. The most common forms include Japanese encephalitis and tick-borne encephalitis viruses.
Doctors said the children – most aged between two and eight years old and from five different districts of northern Bihar – may have caught the virus as a result of poor hygiene and nutrition.
(Editing by Nita Bhalla)
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