IANS/Kolkata
Encephalitis is “under control” in West Bengal, an official said yesterday, dismissing reports about the disease surfacing in Kolkata.
The total number of people who died due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in the state stood at 119 up to July 31, according to the director of health services.
In the northern part of West Bengal at least 79 have died in July this year.
“If we include people from Assam, Bihar and Sikkim residing here then the figure stands at 123. There have only been two new cases since Wednesday. So we can say the situation is under control,” B R Satpathi, director of health services said.
The death of a two-year-old boy allegedly diagnosed with the disease at M R Bangur Hospital here and later shifted to N R S Medical College and Hospital, has sparked rumours that AES and its subset Japanese Encephalitis are spreading out.
However, officials at the hospitals have denied the claims.
“There have been no cases of encephalitis. The baby died of extreme convulsions on July 25, which could not be controlled,” Somnath Mukherjee, superintendent of M R Bangur hospital said.
Authorities at the N R S Medical College and Hospital have iterated the same information about encephalitis.
Meanwhile, certain reports about a person in Kolkata being checked for Japanese Encephalitis at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine - which civic officials had asserted would not affect the state capital - have added fuel to the fire.
A municipal worker fumigates a residential area in Siliguri in West Bengal yesterday. Outbreaks of encephalitis in India have killed more than 160 pe
