‘Kanpur deaths due to Hepatitis E’

“Preliminary results from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow have confirmed that deaths occurred due to Hepatitis E,” said an expert.

The experts from Delhi visited the spot after the state health authorities pleaded helplessness in investigating the cause of deaths, most of which occurred on Monday.

Though the Kanpur state health authorities had earlier found that malaria was on the rise in the area, the NVBDCP experts said the deaths had not occurred due to malaria. “The laboratory has ruled out the possibility of people dying from malaria, as very few cases of malaria are reported. The cause of all the deaths, therefore, cannot be malaria,” added Dr G P S Dhillon, director, NVBDCP.

With symptoms like viral fever, Hepatitis E is not clinically distinguishable and diagnosis is made by blood tests. In India, very few cases of Hepatitis E have been reported so far and the recent spread has put the health officials on their toes. “Rounds of meetings are going on among experts. Also, health officials have been deployed in far-flung districts to inform about such incidents, if any,” said an official.

As many as 40 teams of doctors have been deployed in the blocks where the “mystery” fever has spread. The experts have collected sera samples of the people down with fever, which they will send to National Institute of Communicable Diseases for further examination.

Meanwhile, anti-mosquito measures have been intensified in the area. “Contaminated water supply and unhygienic conditions are the cause of Hepatitis E, the virus is fatal as there is no treatment for this,” said Dr N P Singh, professor of medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College.