Protests greet Nitish Kumar at Bihar hospital; encephalitis toll at 107

MUZAFFARPUR/PATNA: As "brain fever" killed four more children, pushing the toll to 107 on Tuesday, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar faced angry protests from parents and attendants of children undergoing treatment at Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur.
Protesters raised slogans such as " CM wapis jao" as Nitish arrived at the hospital to take stock of the situation. He held a review meeting with doctors and health officials and directed senior health department officials to raise the capacity of the hospital to 2,500 beds from the existing 600.
"The capacity must be increased to 1,500 beds in the first phase and later to 2,500 beds. This must be done on priority basis," Nitish said, adding that the all renovation work be completed within two years. TOI had highlighted in its reports the lack of beds for the large number of children pouring in with acute encephalitis syndrome (AES).
Despite the protests, the CM spoke to the parents and attendants of affected children and visited every ward, including four paediatric ICUs. He spoke to the guardians of all the children undergoing treatment at the PICUs and assured them of all assistance from the government to save their lives.
^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

References

1. ^{^} brain fever (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
2. ^{^} Nitish Kumar (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
3. ^{^} Muzaffarpur (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
4. ^{^} acute encephalitis syndrome (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
5. ^{^} affected children (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

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