Toll 50, NIV blames ‘new virus’

Teena Thacker , Santosh Singh

Posted: Thu Jun 30 2011, 00:14 hrs

New Delhi, Patna: An “uncommon” or a “new virus” may have hit Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, where a mysterious disease has claimed 50 children — all aged below 10 — till now, experts have said.


The National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, has ruled out Japanese Encephalitis (JE), Nipah and Chandipura virus after testing the samples. “It could be an unknown or a new virus. We have ruled out JE, Nipah, Chandipura, but are yet to come to a conclusion,” NIV Director Dr A C Misra said.


He said it would take some days to identify the virus as they had not got the “right samples” yet. “We have asked for brain biopsies which we think would help identify the virus. We are likely to get one sample tomorrow,” he added.


Muzaffarpur Magistrate S K Mall confirmed the NIV team collected one brain tissue sample from a child, who died on Tuesday.


A team from the National Center for Disease Control, which had also visited the area, is yet to come out with its results. The team had got samples of cerebrospinal fluids but those would not be enough, according to experts.


A senior official in the Union Health Ministry said nothing could be done unless the virus was found. “As of now, we don’t even know whether it is a water-borne, mosquito-borne or air-borne virus. The interventions will depend on the nature of the virus,” he said.


With three more deaths in the last 48 hours, the toll reached 50 on Wednesday. Over 20 patients are still admitted in various hospitals.


Officials said there was no need to declare an epidemic, the main objective of which would have been to empower doctors to take brain tissues despite objections of the victims’ families because of the procedure of opening the skull.


The NIV team, however, said there was no need to open the skull. It can be collected with a needle through the nostril. “Taking brain tissues after death is not a complicated process,” said Dr Arun Shah, a member of the team.


Bihar Health Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said as the main objective to get brain tissues was served, there was no immediate need to segregate a particular region as epidemic -hit.

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