The state government’s plan to start nutritional rehabilitation centres at primary health hubs to check acute encephalitis syndrome continues to be on paper even as over 200 children have died of the disease this year.
Last year, the government as part of its action plan to tackle the disease that is directly linked to heat, humidity and malnutrition had resolved to get the nutritional rehabilitation centres functional in all primary health centres and selected 477 additional primary health centres in the districts from where the maximum acute encephalitis syndrome cases were reported.
According to government records, 8.3 per cent of the children below 14 years in the state are extremely malnourished and belong to impoverished families. The total number of such children in Bihar is about 35 lakh.
The nutritional rehabilitation centre guideline as envisaged in the National Rural Health Mission clarifies that a child has to be admitted to the centre for 21 days and six children have to be admitted in a batch for 21 days. “There would be a total of 17 batches in a year,” states the guideline.
The mothers of the children would also be admitted to the centres and would get food and incentive for loss of daily wages. This would cost the state exchequer around Rs 47.64 crore a year for expenditure on food, as estimated by the government last year.
Besides, a comprehensive new generation health guarantee scheme was also planned and it included provision of beds, emergency management of childhood illness, food, referral transport and information, education and communication for implementation of the programme.
The state had earmarked around Rs 63 crore for the scheme, but it merely remained only on paper. The health department could not launch the project, while a large number of malnourished children continued to suffer and succumb to the disease. Officials claimed that the work could not be implemented in 2011-12 because of funds and resources. The officials added that the project would be implemented this fiscal.
“Agencies have been selected for setting up the centres in all 38 districts in Bihar. It was planned that the severely malnourished children will be provided with special nutritious food. But we could not start the project last year because of shortage of manpower and resources. Efforts are on this year to ensure that the centres come up in the districts that have reported the maximum acute encephalitis syndrome cases,” a health officer said.
“In Vaishali district, where an international agency is providing nutritional support to poor children, very few acute encephalitis syndrome cases are being reported,” said Dr Prabhat Kumar Sinha, deputy director, Rajendra Medical Research Institute, Patna.