BRD's August toll for kids far lower than in past 3 years

Arjumand Bano / TNN / Updated: Sep 5, 2017, 11:34 IST

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Hospital records accessed by TOI on Monday also indicate that there has been a sharp decline in the number of deaths of children (aged up to 14 years) at the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) and the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of BRD Medical College in January-August this year as compared to the corresponding period in the past three years.

BRD's August toll for kids far lower than in past 3 years

Children receive treatment in the Encephalitis Ward at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur (PTI File Photo)

Key Highlights

Hospital records accessed by TOI indicate that there has been a sharp decline in the number of deaths of children (aged up to 14 years)
In August 2014, the number of deaths reported from the NICU and the PICU wards of the hospital was 567.
It was 668 in August 2015 and 587 in August 2016. However, in August 2017, the figure was 325.

GORAKHPUR: BRD Medical College was in the news for all the wrong reasons throughout August, beginning with the death of 30 children between the 10th and 11th allegedly due to a disruption in the oxygen supply. But the month saw fewer deaths in the two wards of the hospital's paediatric department than it did over the past three years.
Hospital records accessed by TOI on Monday also indicate that there has been a sharp decline in the number of deaths of children (aged up to 14 years) at the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) and the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of BRD Medical College in January-August this year as compared to the corresponding period in the past three years .
In August 2014, the number of deaths reported from the NICU and the PICU wards of the hospital was 567. It was 668 in August 2015 and 587 in August 2016. However, in August 2017, the figure was 325.

A look at the number of deaths of children reported at BRD Medical College between January and August over the past three years indicates that 2017 saw the lowest number of deaths — 1,285. The number of child deaths witnessed by the two wards in the eight-month period in 2014 was 3,828, 4,601 in 2015 and 3,758 in 2016.
Also, 2017 saw the August average for per-day deaths dip to its lowest level in the past three years — almost 10. The figure was 19 deaths per day in 2014, 21deaths per day in 2015 and 19 deaths per day in 2016.

According to hospital records, the number of deaths due to Japanese encephalitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) has also decreased in 2017. Most of the patients afflicted by the two diseases are children. The number of deaths caused by JE and AES in 2014, 2015 and 2016 was 616, 442, and 514, respectively. It is 189 so far this year.
Chief campaigner for the 'Encephalitis Eradication Movement' Dr RN Singh, who has been working on the eradication of the disease for more than three decades, said the dip in the number of cases at BRD Medical College might be because of the use of JE vaccination and fogging exercises. However, it is still difficult to ascertain the exact reason behind the trends as indicated by the hospital records.
When TOI tried contacting doctors and officials at BRD Medical College, they refused to speak on the issue.
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