A child suffering from acute enchephalitis syndrome undergoes treatment at Patna Medical College and Hospital. Telegraph picture

Patna High Court on Thursday directed the state government to file a fresh report within four weeks on the measures it had taken to contain suspected encephalitis in Patna, Muzaffarpur and Gaya districts, finding its explanation unsatisfactory.

A division bench comprising Justice T. Meena Kumari and Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh issued the order hearing a PIL filed by social activist Dhirendra Kumar seeking direction to the state government to take preventive measures to check deaths of children suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome.

Dhirendra had filed a petition last year in the high court after the death of a large number of children suffering from suspected encephalitis in Gaya in 2011. Recently, he filed an application for widening the ambit of the petition. The petitioner prayed to the court to remove the civil surgeons of Patna, Muzaffarpur and Gaya, and the director-in-chief of the health department.

As the simultaneous hearing of the PIL and the petition began, the state government submitted that it had appointed doctors in Gaya besides carrying out proper immunisation and fogging in the district. But Dhirendra’s counsel, Sunil Kumar, refuted the government’s claim and said no preventive measures were taken. As a result, as many as 250 children have died in the three districts so far, Sunil said.

The state government has requisitioned the central government for supply of vaccines in adequate quantity to carry out immunisation programme in the affected areas, Sunil said. Had the government been serious and sincere to tackle the problem, it would not have requisitioned vaccines so late, he added.

Sunil submitted that the doctors sent to Gaya from Patna Medical College and Hospital on deputation either did not join the health hubs in Gaya or got their deputation cancelled.

Dhirendra, the petitioner, contended that the children were dying because the state government did not take the vaccination programme seriously. No child death occurred in 2010 because there was a massive immunisation drive in Gaya. But the government did not carry out the drive in 2011, resulting in 94 deaths in 2011 and 11 deaths in 2012 in Gaya. Last November, the high court had asked state health department’s principal secretary to personally appear before it to explain what steps the government had taken to control the spread of encephalitis and malaria in Gaya district.