Muzaffarpur, May 16: A five-member team of the National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, arrived in Muzaffarpur today to probe the virus causing acute encephalitis syndrome, even as children suffering from the disease poured into government hospitals.

Dr Gyan Bhushan, the chief medical officer and civil surgeon of Muzaffarpur, said: “On request by the health department, a National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) team, led by Dr Padmini (principal scientist), has come to identify the virus causing acute encephalitis syndrome.”

An NCDC team, led by joint-director Himanshu Chouhan, is camping in Muzaffarpur. Both teams would visit villages to track the virus.

“They would go to Minapur block (around 30km north of Muzaffarpur town) to study ecological imbalances and living conditions of the villagers to find out the causes of the disease.”

Dr B.P. Khushwaha, director of the Institute of Virology of Gorakhpur Medical College in Uttar Pradesh, who has studied Japanese encephalitis for years, will act as a guide for the NCDC team.

“The virus remains dormant during the year but strikes during summer. It is possibly communicated through domestic or pet animals, reptiles and insects, especially those found in litchi orchards,” he said. The experts visited the home of one Mohammed Mahmood, a resident of Khaimapatti village in Minapur whose two-year-old daughter Sakina Khatoon has been admitted to Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) with acute encephalitis syndrome.”

Since April, around 33 children have been admitted to the SKMCH with acute encephalitis syndrome. “While three of them have succumbed to the disease, 16 have been discharged after being treated,” said Dr G.K. Thakur, the superintendent of the hospital, adding that the patients were being treated under the supervision of Chouhan’s team.