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Sorry state of sick kids in U.P. hospice

Encephalitis-affected children suffer because of lack of proper medical care in Lucknow hospital

LUCKNOW: Eight-year-old Rozni sucks greedily on a tube taped to her mouth in a desperate effort to breathe in oxygen at a hospital children's ward labelled ``Encephalitis''.

``The oxygen bottle is empty, empty for quite some time'' said Rozni's uncle Noor Ali, frantically trying to alert a medic sifting through papers in Lucknow's largest state-owned hospital, King George Medical University.

Despite a majestic name and grand British-built portals, inside the 100-year-old hospital resembles nothing more than a medieval dungeon.

Dank walls are smeared with human fluids accumulated over the years. The lighting is poor and there is no ventilation.

The 600-bed King George is the final refuge for victims of Japanese Encephalitis, which since July-end has claimed more than 500 lives in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, of which Lucknow is the provincial capital.

``We rushed our child here yesterday because the government hospital back home gave up all hope of saving him,'' said Ghomcha Devi, from Sitapur district.

``But he is not moving at all.... What do I do now?'' the frightened woman said in the ward filled with the stench of vomit.

Her four-year-old son lay lifeless.

Nearby Rajrani Devi, of Gosaiganj district, cooed to her inert two-year-old, also stricken with encephalitis.

``He is not speaking at all.... He is not even responding to anything. Sir, we are poor people and there is no one to listen to us,'' Rajrani wept.

For medicine, she had been given a stained bottle filled with an unidentified syrup by hospital attendants.

Paediatricians privately say the cash-starved hospital has few life-support systems to spare to tackle the numbers of children who began pouring in as encephalitis spread across 25 of the state's 70 districts.

``They all want to come here because its free,'' said an intern, biting into an apple as an unseen mother's piercing wail signals another young life lost to ``brain fever'', or mosquito-borne encephalitis.

``Patients have been coming from across Lucknow as well as districts of Hardoi, Behraich and Sitapur since the outbreak,'' Children's ward head, Professor Kusum Srivastava, told AFP.

A total of 144 victims registered with the hospital since July-end and while 52 have been discharged after treatment, 39 died and 53 others remain, 17 of them in critical condition, said Srivastava.

``Last two days we have some relief as the flow of patients has ebbed,'' he said, adding that the outbreak was the most virulent he has seen.

``I have no answer why this has happened,'' said the senior doctor.

Some 2,100 patients -- nearly all children -- were Wednesday battling encephalitis in various hospitals across Uttar Pradesh.

Health workers bemoan the lack of early preventive action to save lives and have contested official casualty figures.

``Encephalitis has turned into an epidemic in eastern Uttar Pradesh where thousands of people, mostly children, are affected,'' said Shalini Raman from the privately-run Voluntary Health Association, the largest NGO in the State. - AFP

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