Deputy director of National Control Disease Control Programme Dr Ram Singh and (right) Dr AK Tiwary, head of state surveillance team on kala azar, at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur on Thursday. Picture by Prakash Kumar

Muzaffarpur, June 30: The state surveillance team on kala azar headed by Dr A.K. Tiwary and accompanied by deputy director of National Control Disease Control Programme, Mumbai, Dr Ram Singh visited the town to explore the co-relation between kala azar and suspected cases of encephalitis.

Following abrupt rise in the number of cases of kala azar, which had previously created havoc in the districts of north Bihar, the visiting team held secret talks with the attending doctors of Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) and the chief medical officer, Dr A.P. Singh. The team collected samples of blood, urine and serum of the kala azar patients to examine them at a laboratory in Mumbai to investigate the co-relation between kala azar and the suspected cases of encephalitis in the district. The health department that has been on the firing line following the spurt in suspected cases of encephalitis and 44 subsequent deaths of children, in Muzaffarpur and its adjoining areas is caught in a bad state owing to the rise in number of kala azar patients.

Sharp rise in the number of kala azar cases at Sadar Hospital, SKMCH, Kalaazar Medical Research Centre, Rambagh, has baffled the health mandarins.

Three kala azar patients have died during the course of treatment at Sadar Hospital and SKMCH in the span of two days. Two children died at Sadar Hospital and a minor boy died at SKMCH.

Nearly 83 patients, mostly children belonging to the lower strata of society, were undergoing treatment for kala azar at SKMCH, 38 patients at Sadar Hospital and 88 patients afflicted with symptoms of kalaazar at Kalaazar Medical Research Centre at Rambagh, in Muzaffarpur.