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Two more children die in Rajasthan’s Salumber, viral Encephalitis suspected
Two more child deaths in Rajasthan’s Salumber take toll to eight; health teams suspect viral encephalitis and have sent samples to NIV Pune
Two more children have died in Rajasthan’s Salumber on Wednesday as medical teams continue to investigate the cause of the illness, suspected to be viral encephalitis, that has killed six toddlers in Ghata and Lalpura villages over the past few days.
Salumber’s district collector Muhammed Junaid said that two teams from the health department have been monitoring the situation constantly for the last few days.
“They have collected blood, stool and saliva samples from children with suspected symptoms. Their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. We suspect it could be a kind of viral encephalitis, but we are yet to get the test report from NIV,” Junaid said.
According to health department officials, Raunak Ved (4) and Divyansh (2) were taken to a hospital on Wednesday evening after they developed high fever and vomiting.
“Soon after reaching the hospital, the doctor declared both of them dead. Although their symptoms were quite similar to the previous six cases, there were some differences in the pattern. It could be some different health issue, but we are yet to ascertain that. We have collected their samples and sent them for testing,” Salumber’s Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Mahendra Parmar said.
Block Chief Health and Medical Officer (BCMO) Sintu Kumawat said that teams screened children in schools and anganwadis and collected samples from over 1,000 children on Wednesday.
This development comes after six deaths were reported since April 1, including Deepak Meena (4), Seema (4), a one-year-old unidentified girl from Simor village, Laxman Meena (4), Kajal Meena (2) and Rahul Meena (4), within one or two hours of showing similar symptoms.
Officials said that at least 85 children were hospitalised with similar symptoms. “The survey was conducted in 120,961 houses across the Udaipur division, during which over 940 children were found with similar symptoms. At least 75 of them were taken to a hospital. Anti-larval activity has also been carried out in 5,532 places after medical teams suspected viral encephalitis,” Junaid said.
