Meet the doctor who treated Gorakhpur’s first JE case 39 yrs ago
Dr RN Singh was a 28-year-old senior resident in the department of paediatrics at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College when the hospital got its first case of what was later diagnosed as Japanese Encephalitis.
That was in 1978. Since then, the mosquito-borne viral infection has caused annual outbreaks in the region, killing hundreds of children each year.
“An 8-year-old boy was brought to the emergency early in the morning with fever that was about 104 degrees Fahrenheit, convulsions, and incoherent behaviour. He went into a coma slater and died the next day. No one knew of what,” recalls Dr Singh. “Soon, the hospital was getting around 50 cases a year.”
Japanese encephalitis and the deadlier Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) became the national buzzwords after 30 children died between August 9 and 11 in BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur’s largest government hospital, amid allegations that a private company contracted to supply oxygen cylinders cut supply over a payment dispute.
The first JE case was reported in the North Arcot district of Tamil Nadu in 1955 and the infection stayed confined to southern India till 1973 when it was recorded from Burdwan and Bankura districts of West Bengal. In 1978, suspected outbreaks of JE were reported from 18 states and 24 states and UTs.
“Gorakhpur did not have the testing facilities needed and a diagnosis was made on the basis of cerebrospinal fluid analysis. When cases started growing, samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, which confirmed it as encephalitis caused by Japanese B virus,” he said.