A day after independent India turned 70 this week, the number of children who died at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das or BRD Hospital in Uttar Pradesh since last Monday crossed 70. BRD hospital with its sprawling campus is the epicenter of treatment for viral encephalitis and caters to people from all districts of Eastern UP, Bihar and Nepal. Contaminated water and lack of proper sanitation lead to children contracting the disease. Living near paddy fields where mosquitoes breed and drinking infected water from shallow hand-pumps pose serious risk factors.
