New Delhi: As Acute encephalitis Syndrome continues to claim innocent lives in Bihar, taking the death toll to 150; a survey by Bihar government claims that three-fourth of those who have been affected and lost their lives have been below poverty line (BPL).

As per an audit data published by TOI, of the 287 families audited, the average annual household income of the families surveyed was little above Rs 53,500 or about Rs 4,465 per month. As per the Rangrajan Committee, the poverty line in Bihar in 2011-12 was defined as per capita monthly income of Rs 971. For any average family which has close to 5 members, this comes around Rs 4,855 per month.

As per the survey, there were families whose annual income was as low as Rs 10,000 per annum, whereas those at the top of the chart earned up to Rs 1.6 lakh per annum. Most of these families (82%) earned the living by working as labourers.

In 200 of the 287 cases surveyed (about 70%), the families claimed that their children had been playing outside in the sun before falling sick and of these 61 children had not eaten anything a night prior before sleeping.

The report further claimed that about 64% of the households were from areas surrounding litchi orchards and the same percent people had consumed litchi before falling sick. Surprisingly, majority of their parents were not aware of the AES and did not know that a treatment for the same was available at primary health care.