[Mati]

Dear Suman,

That's good job! Keep posting (useless to say that: you are doing it and definitely you have more posts than mine).

Japanese Encephalitis (JE), a viral arthropod borne infectious disease, is dangerous one which can be prevented with vector (culex: mainly) control and vaccines. Human is not a normal host for the life cycle of this virus and is a dead end host! The disease is prevalent in our Terai region. However, a Western Doctor practicing in Nepal has said he had one case of JE from Kathmandu valley (from periphery of Kathmandu valley where paddy fields are ). I don't the details of the patient i.e migration status, traveling history, pets and etc. The disease starts from the ending/last segment of rainy season/monsoon. We can say from the end of Shrawan or from Bhadra and takes height somewhere during the time of Dashain Festival. As we know like malaria, it will affect and make victims of poors in Terai.

There is no specific treatment for this disease so far. It is only supportive measures we can do. The prevalence of this disease is of bimodal way: children and elderly. The mortality can go as high as to 30%-40%. In many cases, we need ICU set up.

Few weeks earlier, I have been in touch one of the leading epidemiologist of Nepal who is, of course, was in touch with the Ministry of Health. This year we have been suffering from the JE vaccine shortage! The financial aid for the vaccine has been very much delayed due to red tapism. The vaccines produced by the companies have been all reserved by INDIA because India need a lot more vaccines. Therefore, even if we get money by now it is already too late to buy vaccine and there are no vaccines in the market duet high demand as well as India reserving it. So, Nepal has what was left in her stock and last year's remaining which is not adequate of course!!! Therefore, there is high chance that Nepal can have JE upsurge this year!!! It is already rainy season, let's see.

Let's hope there will be less case fatality this year. Nepal has already been successful to reduce case fatality rate by vaccines as well as preventive measures.

Best wishes,
mati