Lesson from Gujarat’s worst encephalitis outbreak in decades

Two-year-old Sanjay* from Bhilwara, Rajasthan was unconscious when his parents admitted him, in August 2024, to a leading private hospital seven hours away in Ahmedabad.

He had developed fever with vomiting on a Monday morning and ceased to recognise his parents soon after. When the treatment meted out by one, then a second hospital proved unsatisfactory, his parents rushed to a higher centre in Ahmedabad, where Sanjay was quickly admitted to the paediatric intensive care, put on a ventilator for breathing distress, and treated for low glucose level and low blood pressure.

Investigations showed that Sanjay’s liver and kidneys had already been severely damaged, all in just over 24 hours. “His liver function tests were 300-400 times above the normal limits and his kidney function was abnormal too, so we started him on continuous dialysis,” Ankit Mehta, the paediatrician and critical care consultant who treated Sanjay, told IndiaSpend.

Over the next 24 hours, Mehta led a team of five doctors and nurses caring for Sanjay, working through the night to normalise his parameters. While his sugar level stabilised and his liver and kidney function improved, testing with a near-infrared spectroscopy showed no response from the brain. The inflammation in Sanjay’s brain continued to increase.

“At one point we...

Read more