Nitish to officials: Get 100-bed PICU ready at SKMCH, Muzaffarpur, to treat AES cases

PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday held a high-level review meeting on issues related to coronavirus, bird flu, swine flu and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) at the CM residence here.
Concerned over reporting of a fresh case of AES from Sakra block in Muzaffarpur district, the CM asked the state government officials to take all kind of protective steps in the areas which are likely to be affected by the deadly disease.
He further asked the concerned officials to get the under-construction 100-bed paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at the SKMCH, Muzaffarpur, ready at the earliest, so that people could get facility of specialised treatment at time.
Around five to six blocks in Muzaffarpur district last year reported maximum number of AES cases in the summer season. The number of AES cases registers a sharp rise after increase in heat in summer season. CM asked the health officials to keep everything in prepared mode from today itself so that proper treatment could be provided to all patients in case of rise in the number of AES patients in summer days.
He also asked the officials to launch a special campaign in affected areas to make people aware about the cause of AES.
Nitish also took stock of the current situation of spread of infection of coronavirus in the state and issued certain instruction to the health officials and all those involved in operation of relief camps for the stranded people due to the lockdown.
He further took updates about the bird flu and swine flu from the officials of animal and fisheries resources department (AFRD) and asked them to maintain a close vigil on all those areas from where the cases of unnatural death of birds were being reported.
CM asked the AFRD officials to take all necessary steps to check impact of bird flu and swine flu.