Parents pray for their children in encephalitis-hit Bihar

| June 29, 2012

Muzaffarpur: The disease has already claimed the lives of more than 200 children and affected nearly 600 in Bihar. Distraught parents are now praying to god to save their children. The disease, called acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), is not Japanese encephalitis, the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) announced on Thursday.

“In fact the disease remains a mysterious one,” additional secretary (Health) RP Ojha said.Manoj Paswan and his wife Lakhni Devi have lost all hope, as their three-and-a-half-year-old child is fighting for life after contracting AES. They are not paying heed to doctors’ assurances that their child will survive. Both are praying for divine blessings.

Last week, they had admitted their only son in the encephalitis ward of the Sri Krishna Memorial College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur, but his condition has not shown any signs of improvement.

“We are praying to god to save our child,” Paswan, a landless farmer said.Sunil Kumar, another parent of an AES-affected girl, said his daughter is in a critical condition. “Only the rain god can save my child as doctors told us that the monsoon will help to suppress the virus causing the disease,” Kumar said.

In Muzaffarpur, worst affected by AES, the parents of AES-affected children have begun fearing the worst.

“We are helpless, hoping against hope for our child’s survival,” said Ranju Devi, mother of a five-year-old boy who has been at the Kejriwal hospital in Muzaffarpur for five days.

Category: India

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