<span style="color: #222222;">The Centre told the Supreme Court today that it was pro-actively providing all the necessary support to Bihar in containing and managing Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in which more than 150 children have died. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In an affidavit filed on a plea seeking measures for containment of the disease, the Centre said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had visited Bihar on 16th June to review the situation in Muzaffarpur.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' After the visit, several decisions were taken including construction of a 100- bed Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Shri Krishna Medical College And Hospital in Muzaffarpur by the State Government in one year from the funds of National Health Mission (NHM), the affidavit said.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' It further said that a decision has been taken to set up five virology labs in different districts of the state from the NHM funds and the location of the districts will be decided in consultation with the State Government. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">A Super Speciality Block is being constructed at SKMCH hospital and it would start functioning by first week of December.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Besides these steps, the affidavit said that Ministry of Earth Sciences has been requested to upgrade its IMD Observatory facility for improved monitoring of climate related parameters such as temperature humidity, rainfall and share it with the state government for better preparedness and management of AES. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Health Minister has decided to constitute inter-disciplinary, high-quality research team for ascertaining the case of AES with specific reference to Muzaffarpur.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' The apex court is hearing a petition filed by advocate Manohar Pratap who has said that he was deeply pained and saddened by the deaths of more than 126 children, mostly in the age group of one to 10 years, in Bihar due to AES. Besides Centre, the apex court had also asked Bihar Government to file its response on the issue.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Regarding AES cases, the State Government said 824 cases have been reported and the number of deaths was 157. But, however, it was not known whether 24 deaths out of 215 cases were due to AES.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Symptoms of AES include high fever, convulsions and extremely low blood sugar levels. Among the factors said to trigger the syndrome are malnutrition.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Litchis grown in Muzaffarpur, the country's largest litchi cultivation region, are said to contain a toxin which can cause a drop in blood sugar levels if consumed by a malnourished child. </span><br />''