The Gorakhpur syndrome

Here’s a quiz: What’s killed more human beings than any other disease, famine or world war? I’m guessing you won’t be surprised by the answer: A mosquito bite.

Despite the advances in modern medicine, the undeniable fact is that we’re still unable to combat the deadly effects of a bite from a tiny mosquito. It continues to act as a vector for serious diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, zika, and of course, Japanese encephalitis that is ravaging eastern Uttar Pradesh. Nearly two million people die from mosquito-borne diseases every year. And the morbidity levels are considerably higher.

Over the