This is a bad news for the state, which is still coping with the spread of JE and AE variants of Encephalitis virus. What makes it even worse is that there is neither a vaccine against the West Nile virus nor any line of treatment. In its comparison, the earlier two variants seem mild.

The presence of the virus has been reported in an eight-year-old boy, Aporva, who is currently admitted at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

When he was brought to the hospital around two months ago, he was having around 16 to 18 convulsions each day and used to remain unconscious all the time. Now, the number of convulsions has reduced but his condition is still very critical. “We have confirmed reports of West Nile virus. Since this child had previously visited Delhi and Jaipur before catching the disease, we will be writing to the state governments to be on alert. It could be possible that the boy had contracted the virus there,” Dr TN Dhole, the head of Microbiology department at SGPGIMS said. Dr Dhole will be sending the samples to the World Health Organisation for further research purpose. It is to be noted that most recent outbreaks of this virus have been reported in the United States. Since 2004, the US has witnessed over 100 deaths due to this virus. In India, isolated cases of West Nile have been reported in southern and western part of the country but so far no epidemic has been reported.

“We have come to know about the case and have asked the CMO to prepare the case file of this child with his history and the places that he visited recently etc. First we need to understand the case and then will decide on the action plan,” said Dr Rajendra Kumar, Director General, Medical and Health.

Aporva’s family calls for awareness about the virus
The parents of Aporva Singh, the eight-year-old who is battling the West Nile virus for over the last two months at SGPGI, feel that they were lucky to get the right treatment for their son and called for greater awareness about the disease.

“We plead that there should be more awareness about the virus in the state as neither people nor doctors are much aware about it. I luckily got the right treatment at the right time but I would not have been able to save my son, had I waited for few more hours.” said RD Singh, Aporva’s father, who is a SDO in BSNL.

A resident of Lucknow, Apoorva had visited Delhi, Agra and Mathura during the last week of December and when he returned he reported fever. He was admitted to SGPGI January 12, when he had his first convulsion. Since then, he is lying unconscious and even when he gains some consciousness, he is unable to recognise any one. “We had travelled to a few districts in the state and Delhi. Thus, my son has contacted virus from one of these places only. There might be more cases but no one would be able to identify them due to lack of awareness among people,” Singh added. — ENS