Tag: Health department

Centre issues Ebola advisory, asks Bihar to remain alert

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Bihar health department has readied guidelines to issue an advisory asking medical colleges and district hospitals to identify isolation facility for Ebola virus disease (EVD).

This follows an advisory by the Centre on July 18 urging states to keep vigil for EVD after its cases were reported from Congo. On July 17, the World Health Organisation declared the situation of Ebola in Congo as public health emergency of international concern.

The letter from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), ministry of health and family welfare (MoH&FW), New Delhi, advised state surveillance officer to keep constant vigil and raise awareness level and knowledge of surveillance officers and healthcare providers on basic standard precautions to be followed during the care and treatment of the suspected patients.

It also asked states and union territories to identify an isolation facility in each district and medical college.

“While asking our healthcare officials to stay alert and also ready isolation wards in their respective facilities, we will ask all districts and medical colleges to immediately notify us if they come across any case of Ebola. We will urge our health officials to keep themselves abreast with the Centre’s instructions on safe handling of human remains of Ebola patients, hospital infection control guidelines, guidelines for sample collection, storage and transportation, guidelines for healthcare provider and guidelines for clinical case management, available on the MoH&FW website,” said executive director of Bihar’s State Health Society, Manoj Kumar.

He said though hospitals did not have separate beds for different diseases, it did have a limited number of beds in isolation ward to cater to infectious diseases.

“We will reiterate the need to keep in readiness isolation wards in district hospitals and medical colleges that can also be used to treat Ebola cases,” added Kumar.

Director, NCDC, Dr Sujeet K Singh, in his letter, said, “If any suspect is admitted to their health facility or seen by health provider, (they should) include the basic level of infection control — hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment to avoid direct contact with blood and body fluids, prevention of needle stick and injuries from other sharp instruments, and a set of environmental control.”

Cases of Ebola are being reported from Congo since 2018. So far, 2,522 cases (2,428 confirmed and 94 probable) and 1,698 (1,604 confirmed and 94 probable) deaths have been reported since August 2018 till July 16, this year from Congo with case fatality rate of 70%. 

AES lens on Gaya now as 3 kids die

Source: hindustantimes.com

Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), the mystery disease that has claimed lives of 156 children across Bihar so far, has claimed four more lives during the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 160, health officials said.

While one child died at the Muzaffarpur’s Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (SKMCH), the rest three succumbed to their ailment at Gaya’s Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMCH).

Spread of AES from the state’s north to south is a matter of serious concern for the health department, which is already under fire for failing to contain AES deaths as the disease has been recurring every year during the extreme summer and causing much devastation.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, while expressing serious concern over the death in the state assembly two days back, had said that experts from across India and even US had come up conflicting and incomplete findings on causes that lead to AES among children in Bihar.

ANMCH officials said at least six children were brought to the hospital, of which four showed AES symptoms while two were brought dead in the last 24 hours. The deceased, who were referred by primary health centres, were being treated for AES, official said.

Another one died on way to Patna.

Officials said that rest three patients of suspected AES are still undergoing treatment at the ANMCH and their conditions are said to be stable.

ANMCH superintendent Dr Vijay Krishna Prasad said blood samples of all the patients had been sent to the Rajendra Medical Research Institute in Patna for laboratory tests to ascertain the type of the disease. “At present, we have identified symptoms of Japanese encephalitis and AES, but the same can be confirmed only after the RMRI tests. We can just call it suspected encephalitis cases,” the ANMCH superintendent said.

He, however, said that the medical college is well equipped to counter the menace. “We have already created 30-bed ICU attached to the paediatric ward for AES patients. Besides, we have adequate medicines and experts to handle such cases,” the superintendent said.

Since JES generally strikes in a big way after the first showers across the Magadh division, the health department had earlier chalked out strategy to combat the situation. “There would no Muzaffarpur-like situation here as we are on high alert and patients are being promptly attended upon,” a health department official said.

“The Bihar government has announced Rs 50,000 compensation to the families that have lost their kids to AES. We are now preparing the patients’ records,” the superintendent said.

Meanwhile in Muzaffarpur, the epicentre of the disease, 24 AES afflicted children are currently undergoing treatment at the SKMCH while one is being treated at the Kejriwal Maternity Clinic.