Uttar Pradesh Children’s wilderness When cases of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) — a mosquito borne disease that mostly targets children (adults develop immunity due to mild, symptom-less earlier infections) — were first reported in the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh (pop. 166 million) in late June, government health officials were typically nonchalant. After all in the rice growing areas of eastern UP, JE is an annual visitor. Blame it on the region’s bowl-shaped topography that traps water, providing ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes (in this case the culex tritaeniorhynchus, a species that feeds outdoors beginning at dusk and throughout the night until dawn) which transport this disease from pigs to humans. But this year excessive pre-monsoon rains worsened matters. By end September, more than 900 children aged between three-15 were fatally infected in 14 districts (including Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Faizabad, Kushinagar, and Maharaj-ganj) of the state, while lesser scale devastation was reported from neighbo-uring Bihar. Now the state government’s health officials concede it’s the worst ever JE outbreak in living memory. Although this unprecedented epidemic prompted consolation visits to the state by prime minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s response was typically laid back. On September 7, the state government hosted former US president Bill Clinton for an evening at a cost to the exchequer of Rs.1 crore. Politics also grounded a helicopter sent by Rahul Gandhi, MP from Amethi for aerial medicinal fogging (spraying) of the afflicted areas. The chopper is still grounded while the state government and the Congress argue the merits and demerits of fogging. The state’s urban development minister Mohd Azam Khan says that fogging exacerbates the situation. This, despite a World Health Organisation green signal for fogging as a preventive measure. Besides catching and banishing pigs, the state government’s declared focus has been on treating children with JE vaccine — 7.5 million vaccine doses are needed to immunise children in the region, against which India produces only 400,000 doses annually. Importing the vaccine would cost the state government Rs.130 per child, which given that the health budget of India’s most populous state is only Rs.6 per child, it is unwilling to bear. A Chinese vaccine priced 30 percent cheaper is an alternative. But since it is unapproved by WHO its status is nebulous. Even so the state government intends to vaccinate children only next year while an estimated 60 children are struggling for life in ill staffed and ill-equipped hospitals. Meanwhile press reports in Lucknow have unearthed that UP’s Samajwadi Party led government has neglected to utilise Rs.48 crore allotted by the Central government to control vector borne diseases for the year 2005-06. In particular only Rs.16 lakh of the fund which was to be used for fogging, strengthening field units and mobilising employees, has been utilised thus far. Where funds should be spent is also politically determined. Thus when Sonia Gandhi came visiting, she gifted Rae Bareli, her constituency, with expensive gadgetry including…
