AES Claims Season’s First Victim in Bihar, 3-Year-Old Dies

Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), also known as brain fever, killed about 200 children in Bihar in 2019.

Muzaffarpur: Children with Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) symptoms being treated at hospital in Muzaffarpur, Bihar on 19 June 2019. Image used for representation only.

(Photo: IANS)

A three-year-old boy died in Bihar on Sunday, 29 March due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), also known as brain fever, which killed about 200 children in the state last year, officials said.

“Aditya Kumar died at the ICU of state-run Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur around 48 hours after his admission.”

Gopal Shankar Sahni, Head of Paediatrics, Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), Muzaffarpur

The SKMCH accounted for about 120 deaths due to AES last year.

The boy, a resident of a village in Sakda block of Muzaffarpur district, had been suffering from cold for some time and was brought to the hospital after his condition deteriorated.

“Another AES patient, a five-year-old girl of East Champaran district, is showing improvement,” said S K Shahi, the hospital's superintendent.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had taken a grim note of the fresh outbreak of AES and ordered that the proposed expansion of the pediatric ICU to 100 beds be expedited.