More than 70 children have died in a span of few days at the BRD medical college in Gorakhpur, UP.
What are the reasons?
Oxygen - Infections and possible disruption of oxygen supply in the paediatric ward are being blamed for the death.
Non-payment of bills is alleged as the reason foroxygen cylinders reportedly falling short.
Government procurement has always been a disorganized issue. Many Vendors have claimed that government agencies are bad paymasters, processes are corrupt and so on.
Japanese encephalitis (JE) - Gorkhapur is also the worst JE affected region in the state, which afflicted many of the children who died in this incident.
JE is correlated with expansion of irrigation and construction of dams four decades ago, resulting in an increase in disease-transmitting mosquitoes.
Health System - India’s worrisome track record on health, its spending, its delivery, lack of insurance support and the weak enforcement of rules on quality and governance are also the driving causes.
What is to be done?
The immediate measure is to take up an independent inquiry and arrive at the reasons for the tragedy. The Indian Council of Medical Research can launch a special commission for U.P., treating it as a public health emergency.
There is no vaccine currently available for checking the spread of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome. Hence better hygiene is the only way to ward it off.
Addressing the issues of hospital infrastructure, shortfall of doctors and supporting medical staff is of prime importance.
The National Health Policy 2017 promises to increase health spending to 2.5% from the current 1 % by 2025.
However, experts feel it needs to be at least 5% or more because India is a country that is simultaneously home to malnutrition and lifestyle problems.
Health is a state subject, but it is high time the Centre set the bar high by prioritising health sector.
