Patna, Oct. 14: Several children succumbed to Japanese encephalitis in Gaya and Munger districts but the only government laboratory in the state equipped to conduct diagnostic tests on the deadly disease at Patna Medical College and Hospital had run out of kits for the past three days.

The kits were made available at the microbiology laboratory by the state health department only this afternoon. As a result, several blood samples have piled up.

Dr Shankar Prakash, the head of the department of microbiology at PMCH, said: “We have now received the kits and diagnosis has started. The tests were stopped for the past three days because of the unavailability of diagnostic kits. At present, we are getting 14-15 blood samples for tests every day. As many as 112 cases of Japanese encephalitis have been confirmed so far.”

According to sources in the health department, around 65 children have died of Japanese encephalitis this year. Most of these cases have been reported from Gaya and Munger.

The sources added that doctors were sent to the affected areas to find the causes leading to the outbreak of the disease. Measures were also taken to intensify the spraying of malathion, an insecticide, to destroy the Culex tritaeniorhynchus species of mosquitoes that transmit the deadly Japanese encephalitis disease.

In a move to identify the vectors — pigs and waterfowl — behind the growth of mosquitoes, the health department has approached the animal and fish resources department to keep pigs away from human habitation. Besides routine immunisation in the districts, special vaccination drives would be undertaken to contain the disease.

The sources said unavailability of kits at PMCH was nothing new. With the government’s plans to upgrade the laboratory yet to materialise, the health hub often fails to furnish reports on time.

The hospital was slated to have the first virology laboratory in eastern India at an estimated cost of Rs 3 crore. Senior doctors said the plan to upgrade the microbiology department into a modern testing lab was approved by the state government around two years ago. But the upgrade process has been extremely slow. Sources said once the upgrade is complete, the laboratory would have modern and advanced testing facilities for diseases like HIV-I and II, hepatitis (A, B, C, D), dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis, swine flu and polio. At present, only a few viral diseases are diagnosed at the lab through serological methods.

According to official figures, three children died and 21 Japanese encephalitis cases were reported in 2006. The death toll rose to 164 in 2007 when 336 cases were reported. Forty-six children died in 2008. As many as 198 Japanese encephalitis cases were detected that year.