Sunday, September 4 2005 11:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Lucknow: Lack of resources, administrative foresight and public ignorance have surfaced as the main reasons behind the annual outbreak of dreaded Japanese encephalitis (JE) in Uttar Pradesh since 1978 which has reportedly taken up to 8,000 lives till date.

The JE virus, which is harbored by pigs as amplifying hosts and transmitted by the culex mosquito into human bodies, appeared rather early in the state in July this year and has already claimed more than 400 lives while over 1,500 were suffering from the disease in eastern and central regions.

Usually, the disease strikes in the post-monsoon period in late August and September when mosquitoes become active and their number turns manifold as it is also their breeding season.

However, this year, JE made an early entry and has spread its reach to 15 districts of the state so far, V S Nigam, Joint Director, Communicable Diseases, Uttar Pradesh, told sources in Lucknow.

The entire terrain belt comprising eastern UP districts and adjoining portions of Bihar and Nepal are susceptible to mass breeding of mosquitoes during this period while the population of pigs in the affected areas is also considerably high, Nigam said, pointing out that actually, the virus does not die but re-appears in the region every year after the monsoon.

Any permanent solution to JE seems unlikely in the Indian set-up that is beset with various indigenous problems like lack of enough resources, insufficient supply of vaccines, uncontrollable number of pigs and unhygienic lifestyle of people, Nigam said.

Only one place in India, the Kasauli-based Central Research Institute, manufactures the conventional mouse vain vaccine for JE but its supply is also much less than the requirement, he said adding, more than a crore vials are required every year to vaccinate children between the age of one to 15 in the state.

A demand to import JE vaccines from China and South Korea was also turned down by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on the ground that they had not been tested in India, he said and added that however, even the vaccines may be of no help after the outbreak of the disease.

People living in vulnerable areas also do not take precautions like covering their bodies, keeping their surroundings clean, staying away from pigs and, above all, not getting into the trap of quacks, Nigam said.

The treatment of JE is rather simple and is available at all primary health centers but people, instead, take the patients to quacks who mislead them and they end up at the district headquarters when the situation goes out of hand, he said.

Measures such as locating piggeries away from human habitation, regular fogging and anti-larval treatment, besides educating people about the precautions, symptoms and timely treatment can go a long way in preventing the spread of the disease, he added.