Indian health authorities on
Monday delivered oxygen to a public hospital where 63 people, half of
which were children died of encephalitis (acute inflammation of the
brain) on Friday, as it ran out of medical supplies because of unpaid
bills.
The death triggered public outrage.
The deaths of the children have again exposed India’s
underfunded and poorly managed public healthcare despite Prime Minister
Narendra Modi government’s vows to revamp the system.
Hundreds of people die each year in India of encephalitis,
a mosquito-borne disease common during the monsoon season, and no
medical official directly linked the recent deaths to a lack of oxygen.