The large number of children dying in
Malkangiri district of Odisha has been officially attributed to Japanese
Encephalitis and malaria but villagers and civil society organisations
say that malnourishment has contributed to these avoidable deaths
“Following vomiting and symptoms that made my 3-year-old daughter,
Julie, feel uneasy, we took her to the district headquarter hospital in
Malkangiri. We never knew that it was her final departure from the
village. She succumbed to a new disease that the doctors said was
Japanese fever (Japanese Encephalitis),” says Chumudi Madkami of
Palkonda village while holding her visibly weak one-year-old son Aditya.
