Uttar Pradesh, under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has achieved remarkable feet. From 1st January to 7th September this year, no death has been recorded in the state caused by Japanese Encephalitis, Chikungunya and Malaria.
In fact, UP CM Yogi Adityanath himself took to X (formerly Twitter) on September 9 to announce the same. The CM wrote, “In the regions of north Uttar Pradesh, thousands of children used to die due to Encephalitis. In 2017, the UP Government formed an inter-department committee to control Japanese Encephalitis.”
He added, “As a result, in the current year between 1st January and 7th September, no one has died due to Japanese Encephalitis, Chikungunya and Malaria. The disease caused havoc in the state for four decades and the state government controlled it within five years. Our next target is its eradication.”
पूर्वी उत्तर प्रदेश के जनपदों में इंसेफेलाइटिस से हजारों बच्चों की मौत होती थी। वर्ष 2017 में @UPGovt ने अंतरविभागीय समिति बनाकर जापानी इंसेफेलाइटिस के नियंत्रण के लिए कार्य किए।
— CM Office, GoUP (@CMOfficeUP) September 9, 2023
नतीजा, इस वर्ष 01 जनवरी से 07 सितंबर तक प्रदेश में जापानी इंसेफेलाइटिस, चिकनगुनिया व मलेरिया से एक… pic.twitter.com/i2w5dq0tPH
As per the data available with the National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control, Directorate General of Health Services that comes under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, a total of 17 cases of JE were reported in Uttar Pradesh between 1st January 2023 and 31st July 2023. No death occurred due to the disease during that period.
While this is cause for celebration for the people of not only Uttar Pradesh but the entire country, we must also take a moment to praise the Yogi government for doing what was unthinkable until a few years ago. But, before we delve further into the stringent measures taken by the Yogi government in recent years to halt the endemic, we should understand what this dreadful disease that has claimed thousands of lives is.
What is Japanese Encephalitis?
Encephalitis is a life-threatening disease causing acute inflammation of the brain. A person afflicted with encephalitis requires serious medical attention. This disease can occur in people of any age group but children and the elderly are more likely to be afflicted with the disease. It is caused due to bacterial infection, or parasites or may be prompted by other infectious diseases. Encephalitis is a non-communicable disease.
Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is a zoonotic viral disease caused by the JE virus. It is transmitted from animals, birds, and pigs, particularly the birds belonging to the family Ardeidae, for example, Cattle egrets, pond herons etc. to humans. The disease may result in febrile illness of variable severity. It affects the central nervous system causing severe complications, seizures and even death. The disease has a high fatality rate and those who survive have chances of various degrees of neurological complications.
For the past four decades, the state of Uttar Pradesh has been devastated by Japanese Encephalitis. With the onset of the monsoon season every year, 1000s of people especially children used to start falling prey to this deadly disease.
Previous regimes’ incompetence in handling the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and Japanese Encephalitis menace in UP
With regard to the previous regimes in Uttar Pradesh putting in the effort to eradicate Encephalitis, it has been woefully inadequate. In 2014, there were 5850 fatalities reported in the state due to the Japanese Encephalitis. This figure went up to 6917 in 2015, and 6121 in 2016.
In the name of working towards tackling the menace, the Akhilesh Yadav government started a few extra ambulances and added a few extra beds in the BRD hospital. He announced a separate hospital in Gorakhpur in 2012 for JEV but it is still far away from completion.
During his tenure, there were very few Encephalitis vaccine efforts, but none of them made any major progress since they were not carefully monitored. Instead of achieving his vow to eradicate Encephalitis, Akhilesh Yadav promised Rs 50,000 rupee compensation for parents who lost their children to this lethal disease. He further announced that a lakh would be provided to survivors who are permanently crippled. However, even these promises were a complete failure, as only 8 people received compensation in 2016 which amounts to less than 1% of patients receiving compensation. Equally grim was the situation in 2014 and 2015.
Yogi govt’s war against Encephalitis
CM Yogi Adityanath, since he was a young MP in the Lok Sabha, has been constantly raising this issue, asking for better awareness programs and better preparedness by the government to tackle the deadly disease that has been claiming thousands of lives every year, mostly little children.
After he became the CM of the state in 2017, Yogi Adityanath launched a multi-pronged, organized, and well-managed approach to tackle the disease in the state. With widespread immunization initiatives, awareness campaigns that go door-to-door, cleanliness drives, and better-equipped healthcare facilities, the state of Uttar Pradesh has finally achieved what was unthinkable just a few years back.
Under Yogi Adityanath’s guidance and due to his relentless efforts the Japanese Encephalitis cases in the state started to drastically decline after he assumed office in 2017. As per data from the National Center for Vector-Borne Diseases Control, cases of JE reduced by 82% and deaths by 95.6% between 2017 and 2022.
In 2018, 323 cases were reported resulting in 25 deaths. In 2019, the number of cases came down to 235 and the number of deaths recorded was 21. Following that year, in 2020, 100 cases were reported resulting in 9 deaths. During Covid time, in 2021, 153 cases were reported resulting in 5 deaths and in the following year 2022, 124 cases were reported resulting in 4 deaths. In 2023, till 31st July, only 9 cases have been reported resulting in zero deaths in the state.
The steps taken by the Yogi government to tackle Encephalitis
After Yogi Adityanath became the CM, he started the ‘Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome’. A large-scale immunisation programme that included a door-to-door awareness campaign, named ‘Dastak’ was launched. 15 Block-level Encephalitis treatment centres and mini-pediatric care centres were opened in rural areas. Block-level hospitals were given the facility of at least 3 ventilators. Moreover, over 3.5 lakh officers and employees were provided with training to equip them to respond to and deal with AES prevention and treatment.
As per the latest data, Gorakhpur district, the worst AES affected district in all these decades, has registered a massive fall in the number of deaths due to AES and JE. In 2016 and 2017, there were 127 and 114 AES deaths respectively. In 2018, the deaths came down to just 41, in 2019, just 15 AES deaths were recorded and in 2020, up to the month of July, just 5 AES deaths have been recorded in the district.
Similarly, the cases of JE have reduced from 51 in 2017 to just 6 cases in 2020 so far. only 1 death due to JE in Gorakhpur has been recorded in 2010 up to now.
Dastak program was praised by UNICEF
The UP government launched the Dastak programme in February 2018, with the aim to immunise every child under 15 years of age and carry out widespread sanitation and awareness programmes. The campaign was planned as a holistic programme to educate and provide facilities to the families, not only for vaccination but also for the prevention and treatment of the disease.
With regards to the drive, Yogi Adityanath had stated that for the 38 districts of UP affected by the disease, the state health department would be made the nodal agency and other departments like urban development, Panchayati Raj, Women, and Child Welfare, Rural Development, Medical Education, Animal Husbandry and basic education departments would work under them.
The United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) praised the Uttar Pradesh government led by CM Yogi Adityanath for successfully immunizing all children of the state against Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome.
A big shout out to #UttarPradesh for immunizing every child in the state against Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome under the #Dastak campaign! 👏#VaccinesWork for #DimagiBukharSeJung#EveryChildALIVE #WorldImmunizationWeek @CMOfficeUP @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/4ww8aCdgOx
— UNICEF India (@UNICEFIndia) April 25, 2018
The statistics presented above attest to Yogi Adityanath’s government’s tireless efforts to eradicate the endemic, which no previous government was able to do. It is a monumental task to adequately limit a devastating disease like this in only 8 years, especially given that UP is the most populous state and has been endemic for this disease for the last 4 decades. The enthusiasm and determination with which the state’s BJP government worked to wipe out the deadly disease surely deserve special recognition.
Liberals and opposition leaders who are silent now had left no stone unturned to use the 2017 Gorakhpur tragedy to attack Yogi Govt
Despite this remarkable achievement, there hasn’t been a word of appreciation from the assorted bunch of liberals, their friendly media or the opposition leaders in the state like Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP leader Mayawati who had, in their efforts to attack the Yogi government, left no stone unturned in politicizing the 2017 Gorakhpur tragedy.
In 2017, when a mind-numbing tragedy hit the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College hospital where 70 children died in a span of only five days, the SP chief used the opportunity to castigate Yogi Adityanath by accusing his government of hiding facts on the matter.
“Government is not revealing the truth. Therefore, a delegation from Samajwadi Party will visit BRD Medical College to take a stock of the situation and inform the government and party,” he told reporters.
Adding that the government is trying to run away from its responsibilities, Yadav said, “Government is not doing their job. They are busy in hounding Samajwadi Party workers. See what has happened in Bareilly and Ballia,” he said. “Government is trying to run away from responsibilities and hence accusing the opposition of politicising the situation,” he said.
BSP supremo Mayawati also criticised the state government and said her party would send a team to take stock of the situation.
In fact, in 2022, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in unison with several leftist media outlets had gone as far as making a hero of Dr Kafeel Khan, the main accused in the deaths of several kids due to a lack of oxygen cylinders at Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in 2017, where he worked as a paediatrician.
For the uninitiated, Dr Khan was suspended from his job over medical negligence charges levelled against him in 2017 after 72 infants had died in BRD medical college in Gorakhpur due to lack of oxygen supply. In January 2020, he was arrested for his speech at Aligarh Muslim University on December 10, 2019, during anti-CAA protests.
Khan had made some inflammatory remarks in his speech delivered during the anti-CAA protests in Aligarh Muslim University. He had reportedly remarked against Home Minister Amit Shah that he was a murderer whose clothes were foul with blood.
Despite all this, the SP party had in 2022, named the controversial doctor as the party’s candidate from the Deoria-Kushinagar legislative council seat for the upcoming MLC elections in Uttar Pradesh.
