Gaya, June 29: The state health department would assess the kind of rehabilitation facility to be provided to children who have survived with some physical or psychiatric deformity after being affected with Japanese encephalitis.

The assessment will be made on the basis of a survey conducted to assess the physical condition of the affected children in different parts of the state, including Gaya, so that necessary rehabilitation facility can be provided.

State health department additional secretary-cum-health department spokesperson, Rajendra Prasad Ojha, told The Telegraph over phone from Patna that the survey was being conducted using the record of the children affected with the disease.

“After the results of the survey, it will be easy to assess what type of rehabilitation is needed for the children who have either developed physical or psychiatric deformity after being affected with Japanese encephalitis.

According to the records available with the state health department, 69 out of 410 children admitted at Anugrah Narayan Medical College and Hospital (ANMCH) in 2011 have been declared Japanese encephalitis positive,” Ojha said.

He said children affected with Japanese encephalitis as well as acute encephalitis syndrome were admitted to ANMCH even in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

During the visit of Union health department director-general Jagdish Prasad at ANMCH on January 29 this year, the head of the department of paediatrics at the hospital, Ajoy Kishore Ravi, had submitted a proposal to open a physical medicine and rehabilitation department here. According to the proposal, the department would be a multi-faculty centre where experts of various disorders will be posted.

A source said the proposal to set up the department was under consideration.

Ojha said a detailed assessment is needed on the type of rehabilitation the children require. “After the survey it will also come to light whether the status of disability among children is permanent or temporary,” he said.

According to Ravi, around 30 to 40 per cent children who survived after suffering from Japanese encephalitis might develop neck rigidity, facial deformity, speech disorder, hearing and visual impairment besides a drop in the intellectual level and an increase in behavioural disorders.

“Symptoms like tremors and convulsions may also develop in a child who has survived encephalitis. Such children need physiotherapy, speech therapy and psychological support to mitigate the damage. There is no cent per cent cure and there is no role of drugs for these children but the aim is to rehabilitate them into the society as much as possible,” he said.