Additional Director of Medical Health, Uttar Pradesh, Dr R K Goyal, on Tuesday denied that over 200 children had died of brain fever in Meerut and Saharanpur districts in the past five weeks.

Blaming the media for blowing up the issue out of proportion, Dr Goyal said in the past five weeks only 51 deaths of children were registered in Meerut and Saharanpur districts and all these deaths were not due to meningitis.

"The whole thing has been blown out of proportion by the media in collusion with Dr V P Bhatnagar, former chief medical officer of Saharanpur district. Two teams of National Institute of Communicable Diseases have put the number of deaths due to meningitis at 28. Other 23 children died of other causes," Goyal said.

He alleged that Dr Bhatnagar, who has a history of seeking stay orders whenever he was transferred out of Saharanpur, had launched a misinformation campaign about children's death with the sole intention of maligning senior paediatrician Dr Gopal Swarup, who had been asked to look after the duties of chief medical officer on two occasions when Dr Bhatnagar was transferred.

"Dr Bhatnagar told some reporters that children were dying due to brain fever because of inefficient handling of the situation by Dr Swarup. The media lapped up the information and soon it became a raging controversy. If it were a case of brain fever, we should have had a series of cases from a number of villages. This was not the case. Some of the cases were referred to the Meerut Medical College for treatment and orders were passed that each and every child suffering from fever in villages should be tracked down and in case there was even the slightest suspicion that he/she was suffering from brain fever, should immediately be given the best possible medical treatment," he claimed.

He said two NICD teams have visited several villages in both Meerut and Saharanpur districts and collected blood and sputum samples. "So far, there has been no indications of an epidemic."

"NICD Director Dr Shiv Lal visited Saharanpur last week and got first hand information about the patients. The deaths could have taken place because of a number of diseases like Japanese encephalitis, viral fever, malaria and cerebero encephalopathy. Meerut has a population of over 20 million and Saharanpur has another 7 million. The mortality rate amongst children in Uttar Pradesh is 85 out of 1000. In this case, death of a child, whatever might have been the cause, was sought to be projected as death due to meningitis," he claimed.

Dr Neelam Bhatnagar, wife of Dr V P Bhatnagar, denied that her husband had any ulterior motive or that he had delibrately spread misinformation about deaths due to brain fever to settle scores with someone.

"It is true that Dr Bhatnagar has on two occasions got stay orders [on his transfer]. But he has nothing to do with the controversy involving the deaths due to brain fever. Dr Bhatnagar rejoined duty on November 16 and worked as chief medical officer till November 21. He provided everything that Dr Gopal Swarup had asked for to treat the ailing children. But if Dr Swarup could not handle it, then he should answer the administration for the deaths and not Dr Bhatnagar. In any case, Dr Bhatnagar was on leave from November 21 to November 26. I don't know who is seeking to put the blame on my husband, but this is not correct," Dr Neelam, an eye specialist herself, told rediff.com on the phone from Saharanpur.

She, however, agreed with Dr Goyal that the media had exaggerated the death figures.

However, these arguments matter little to the man on the street. All he wants is an impartial probe into the deaths.

"I think the administration is now telling us a cock and bull story. They are trying to fool the common people. People have lost their children and they want answers from the Uttar Pradesh government," said Pyare Lal Tyagi, a resident of Meerut.