Patna: Fearing threats to their lives, families of about 250 children from Harbanshpur village in the Vaishali district close to Muzaffarpur have abandoned their village in the last two days.
Eleven children from the village have died of brain fever in the last one week. Encephalitis, which has spread to 12 districts of the state, has claimed 160 lives so far.
One of the villagers Ajay Sahni said four children of a locality have died in the last four days. Two siblings of 7 and 3 years old died within 24 hours, according to their parents.
To save the children from encephalitis attack, the families in the village are sending their children to their relatives’ homes outside the Vaishali district as a precautionary measure.
Villagers of Harbanshpur said on Thursday that there was no arrangement of ambulances to take the children to S K Memorial Hospital at Muzaffarpur. No doctor or para-medical staff visited the village even after the outbreak of the disease. The primary health centre was locked.
The attendants of the children who are admitted to the hospital complained the facilities of the centrally sponsored universal health insurance scheme Ayushman was absent. Doctors are asking the attendants to bring medicines from outside the hospital, they complained.
As the attendants faced harassment in entering the SK Memorial College Hospital on Thursday morning due to presence of the political leaders, they forced the popular Bhojpuri film star Kheshari Lal Yadav who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Azamgarh last month on BJP symbol to make a hasty retreat. He was not allowed to enter the ward by the guardians.
The attendants and guardians were annoyed with the presence of another politician Sharad Yadav who had entered the wards with over a dozen of his supporters.
BY CHHAYA MISHRA
