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Viewing cable 06CALCUTTA442, POVERTY IN THE EAST INDIAN STATE OF BIHAR FOSTERS INFECTIOUS

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06CALCUTTA442 2006-09-26 11:50 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Kolkata
VZCZCXRO0495
PP RUEHBI RUEHCI
DE RUEHCI #0442/01 2691150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 261150Z SEP 06
FM AMCONSUL CALCUTTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1183
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1055
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 0416
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 0416
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0252
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 0252
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 0173
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 0195
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 0089
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0028
RUEHPH/CDC CDC ATLANTA GA PRIORITY
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHC/USAID WASHDC
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL CALCUTTA 1448
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CALCUTTA 000442 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ECON KHIV SOCI KGLB KSCI IN
SUBJECT: POVERTY IN THE EAST INDIAN STATE OF BIHAR FOSTERS INFECTIOUS 
DISEASE 
 
REF: CALCUTTA 00137 
 
1.  SUMMARY:  September 6-7, ConGen visited the East Indian 
state of Bihar to assess its public health issues.  Bihar, 
India's poorest state, presently has 19 polio infections this 
year, second only to its neighbor Uttar Pradesh (UP), which has 
291 cases as of September 25.  Local officials with the United 
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) office and an NGO working in 
public health believed that the recently-elected state 
government was making a strong effort to control the polio 
infections in Bihar.  However, many years of bad governance and 
a weak public health infrastructure complicate efforts to reach 
remote rural areas.  As a result, the state also experiences 
high rates of child mortality: approximately 400 children die 
every day in the state, 60 percent just in the first month after 
birth.  In addition, UNICEF officials described the state as a 
"black hole" for accurate information on HIV/AIDS infection 
among its sizable migrant population.  If the persistence of 
polio in the region is an indicator, the local medical 
infrastructure will likely be unable to deal with other emergent 
infectious diseases such as the growing HIV/AIDS infections, and 
opportunistic diseases like tuberculosis.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
 
2.  Bihar suffers from great poverty.  According to World Bank 
figures, 47 percent of its 83 million people earn less than USD 
12 a month.  The state struggles to provide rudimentary health 
care services and experiences a range of serious public health 
problems.  As of September 25, Bihar has had 19 new polio 
infections, which is a relative improvement over last year's 
infection numbers.  During the same period the previous year, 
Bihar had 30 cases.  However, India as a whole has seen an 
explosion of polio, with presently 326 new cases, as compared to 
last year's country-wide total of just 66 cases.  UNICEF State 
Representative Bijaya Rajbhandari commented that the improvement 
in this year's infection rates for Bihar can be attributed to 
greater effort by state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was 
recently elected in November 2005.  Kumar has pressured health 
officials to implement more effectively the pulse polio 
immunization.  Kumar's first official public activity was in 
fact a pulse polio immunization program and numerous billboards 
around the state capital Patna showed Kumar giving oral polio 
vaccine to a child held by a woman in a burqa.  The billboards' 
display of a Muslim woman and child demonstrated the state's 
focus on the Muslim community, which has been resistant to 
immunization.  Rumors had spread among the community that the 
immunization was an effort to sterilize or poison Muslim 
children.  Rajbhandari said that as part of the Muslim outreach, 
Imams accompanied immunization teams to explain the importance 
of the polio vaccine.  Echoing UNICEF's comments, American 
Warden and NGO director Rick Fendrick said that in the Bodh Gaya 
regional hospital, more medical equipment and staff recently has 
become available and medical service was improving.  However, 
the marginal improvements in Bihar's public health system cannot 
correct years of poor governance and weak medical infrastructure. 
 
 
 
3.  In addition to polio, according to Rajbhandari, Bihar is a 
"black hole" for statistics on HIV/AIDS infections.  The lack of 
an effective sentinel program in the state means that UNICEF and 
other medical services do not have a clear sense of the 
infection rates.  Rajbhandari noted that the National Aids 
Control Organization (NACO)'s sentinel program involves testing 
of pregnant women.  However, only about 12 percent of pregnant 
women in Bihar receive professional medical care.  Most women 
give birth in remote villages and experience high child 
mortality rates.  Until last year, NACO reported a prevalence 
rate of .13 percent for HIV/AIDS infections in the state. 
However, two studies of surveys done by the Bihar State Aids 
Control Society (BSACS) in 38 districts in July 2005 and 
December 2005 found a dramatically increased prevalence rate of 
.53 percent.  Bihar has reportedly 8,128 people diagnosed HIV 
positive and about 1,070 cases of AIDS.  Earlier this year, A 
senior BSCAS official was quoted by the Times News Network as 
saying, "The rate at which infection is spreading, very soon, it 
may cross the 1 percent prevalence rate." (REFTEL). 
 
CALCUTTA 00000442  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
 
 
4.  Some districts have reported infection rates that 
significantly exceed epidemic levels:  Sitamarhi and East 
Champaran have rates of 3.7 percent and 2.28 percent 
respectively.  In March 2006, Health Minister Rai told ConGen 
that the infections are concentrated in areas that are a source 
of migrant labor for the rest of India.  According to the 
Institute of Human Development, New Delhi's report "Rural Labor 
Migration From Bihar," 48 percent of all Bihar households 
reported at least one family member who was a short-term 
migrant.  Bihar appears to be developing into a reservoir and 
potential source of future HIV/AIDS infections for India, just 
as it has for polio. 
 
5.  Rick Fendrick, commenting on the HIV/AIDS situation in 
Bihar's Bodh Gaya area, said that he was personally aware of 
eight cases in that district.  He knew of one case in which an 
infected HIV/AIDS patient went to several doctors and facilities 
in Bihar with symptoms of related, opportunistic diseases and no 
doctor considered testing for HIV/AIDS.  It was only when the 
patient was in New Delhi that a test was done.  Fendrick said 
that the failure to test in Bihar reflected the continued lack 
of even basic awareness about HIV/AIDS among medical personnel 
in the state and that they were unable to recognize symptoms of 
typical opportunistic diseases associated with HIV/AIDS.  He 
also noted that due to the relative high cost, Bihar authorities 
were unable to provide therapies for drug-resistant HIV/AIDS 
cases.  Fendrick said he believed that drug resistant cases were 
present in Bihar and he mentioned the case of one woman with 
HIV/AIDS who was initially responsive to the anti-retroviral 
drugs but then saw a rapid reduction in her white blood cells. 
He also identified drug resistant tuberculosis as another 
concern. 
 
 
 
6.  Comment:  The persistent and growing problem of polio in 
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and neighboring states is symptomatic of 
the poor governance and weak medical infrastructure in much of 
Eastern India.  The failure to address this disease does not 
bode well for the prospect of controlling other infectious 
diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in the region. 
Already, epidemic levels of HIV/AIDS have developed in some 
pockets in Bihar and because of the poor sentinel system in the 
region, it is impossible to assess the full extent of the 
HIV/AIDS infections. 
JARDINE