The death toll from encephalitis in Bihar rose to 127 on Tuesday, with 108 deaths reported from Muzaffarpur alone. A majority of the deceased are children.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar faced protests during the day at Muzaffarpur during a visit to the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital.
Suspected Acute Encephalitis Syndrome has killed 89 people at the hospital and another 19 in Kejriwal Hospital. Relatives of those who died at Sri Krishna Medical College shouted slogans and waved black flags at him.
According to Chief secretary Deepak Kumar, the CM had taken a decision that the government will bear the cost of patients’ expenses for visiting the hospitals. “They will be given Rs 400 for visiting the hospital,” the chief secretary said. He added that the main reason behind the deaths according to what the CM had said was that the patients reached the hospitals late. He said there was no dearth of doctors and some more doctors would be brought in from other hospitals. The CM had asked the hospital to issue daily bulletin.
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said that a high-quality research team will look at the various aspects of the disease to find out more about what had caused the outbreak.
