Tue 22 Jul 2014
Revolution of India
By
Satya Prakash
The Saryupar region of eastern Uttar Pradesh has become the epicenter of dreaded disease broadly known as Encephalitis. Over the years thousands of children have been consumed by this disease since 1978. The most affected are the children of age group 1 to 15 years. Thousands of the children who somehow survive are left physically or mentally challenged, who ultimately become enormous burden for their families.The Hon’ble Allahabad High Court had following observations about the situation, “The court as such declares the outbreak of viral disease in eastern U.P. as national emergency, and calls upon the state government and the central government to immediately respond to the situation”. (Judgment order 31-01-2007)According to the data provided by the B.R.D. Medical Collage, Gorakhpur, which is the only center having the resources for the treatment of Encephalitis in this region, 3409 deaths have been reported from 2005 to 31st of October 2013 out of 17,105 cases during this period. The death amounts to about 20% (even after mass vaccination as claimed by government authorities) of the total cases which are treated here and about the same number of patients become either physically or mentally challenged. These are merely the figures provided by the B.R.D. Medical College. The actual number may well be about 10 times of these figures.Being a backward area, the people are ignorant about what they should do if their child gets affected by the disease, and since they are also economically very poor, they tend to visit the quack doctors ultimately resulting in death or damage to the child.Since the majority of the children belong to the most poor and downtrodden families, therefore the sigh of their pain and sorrow never reaches to anyone who matters. Out of disgust, the Hon’ble High Court of Allahabad observed, “The national press does not appear to have done its duty in highlighting the effects of these viral infections and deaths in eastern U.P. It appears that the national press does not treat eastern U.P., as part of India”. (Dated: 30-10-2006).We are fighting for the betterment of the situation for the last so many years. We have filed many PILs in the matter and have got some success in the matter. The Hon’ble Allahabad High Court on our PIL directed for the establishment of a center of National Institute of Virology-Pune here at Gorakhpur, which is now fully functional. There is a possibility of establishment of a Regional Medical Research Center of ICMR. We are also agitating for the establishment of an AIIMS like institute in this region, a project under ‘Pradhan Mantri Swastha Suraksha Yogna’ (PMSSY). Besides this , we set up a Helpline at the B.R.D. Medical College to assist and help the parents/guardians of the Encephalitis patients admitted in the medical college and organized camps for physically challenged in interior villages. The story is even more frustrating and grim as of today. Will you join us to mitigate suffering multitude of humanity of this region from this abysmal condition.