A seven-member team from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Delhi and Patna reported that untrained doctors who don’t have the skill to handle critical equipment in intensive care units, and the lack of awareness drive because of the Lok Sabha elections in April-May, could be behind the sudden spike in the deaths of children due to suspected Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in the district.

The seven-member team of experts from AIIMS Patna and Delhi visited the Shri Krishna Medical College Hospital (SKMCH) to study the high rate of deaths, blamed the hospital’s doctors in its report for not being able to operate equipment such as CT scan machines, ventilators and blood gas analyzers.

The report was submitted to the Centre’s Director General of Health Services on June 14 with a copy to the Bihar Government. The report said that the hospital’s CT scanners were not used to diagnose the children, neither were the six available ventilators put to use as no trained intensivist was available.

According to a top Bihar health department official, the state government also needs to be faulted for not launching an awareness campaign just before June when most of the deaths due to AES have taken place in the past.