India is currently suffering from an epidemic of acute encephalitis, particularly among children, in Bihar and the disease has taken the lives of hundreds of children in the state. Naturally, Bihar has become the sole focus of the media persons who are visiting several hospitals and playing the emotional card to garner high TRPs for their channels. The TV news channels are filled with screaming journos inside hospitals, who are seen blaming the doctors and questioning the hospital staff and nurses, trying to extract a story they know will turn maximum eyes to their channel.
What is acute encephalitis? Why are only the people of lower socio-economic status affected by it? Is the lychee fruit dangerous to consume? What is the real issue here?
It is a well-known fact that MCPG or Methyl Cyclopropylglycine present in the seeds of unripe lychee fruits causes a severe drop of blood sugar levels in people in general, and children, who are undernourished. Hence, when these children went plucking the lychees and ate them, they caught acute encephalitis, with hypoglycemia ultimately leading to their deaths.
Now, why is nobody talking about malnutrition among the children in Bihar? Why are we not blaming malnutrition as the primary factor behind these deaths? Are the doctors and the hospital beds which are in shortage for no fault of their own to be blamed? Or, should we blame the state government who has paid no heed to the burning issue of malnutrition in the state since decades?
Bihar has the maximum number of underweight children as compared to any other country in the world. The funds to improve this condition have been released but nobody knows where they go. Shouldn’t the health minister be questioned in this regard? The epidemic that is causing hundreds of deaths today in Bihar is only a consequence of the fact that the children are undernourished. Research shows that India has a higher number of undernourished children than any sub-Saharan country, despite India’s per capita income being much higher than those countries and India hasn’t faced as many famines as they have.
The doctors who are continuously being blamed all over the media for their ‘careless’ behavior are looking after two to three ICUs single-handedly; these ICUs are jam-packed with two patients sharing a single bed. Why is there such an acute shortage of doctors in the state, or for that matter, in the entire country? Such epidemics clearly indicate that we are not a country that is equipped to handle such crises because we do not have enough hospitals, enough beds or enough doctors.
The shortage of services is, or should directly be, the concern of the Health Ministry of the state government, but, nobody is touching upon those issues and we are, instead, watching interviews of mothers who have lost their children or are blaming doctors for not attending to the patients. This news will subside as soon as there is another scandal which, as per the media, will need instant coverage.
The Question Is, Was This Epidemic Unforeseen?
Can we really claim that we didn’t see it coming? Bihar is the state that has the largest lychee cultivation and lychee farmers, along with their children, harvest them. These are the same children who are lying unconscious on those hospital beds only because they treated themselves to those lychee fruits they were plucking.
We know that this instance in Bihar is not new; it has been recurring since the 1990s. This clearly shows us how the situation of malnutrition in the state has remained unchanged for decades. There has been no awareness among these people about the effects of this fruit. There is no guarantee that this will be the last such instance. In that case, should we stay prepared for another such case a few years down the line?
I want to call out the media which is not reporting the reality of the crisis, which is just glorifying their stories to win maximum viewers. It is imperative that the government sends people who can spread awareness about this disease and also pays heed to the issue of malnutrition. If they don’t do so we should be prepared for more such deaths in a few years ahead of us.