Kathmandu, Aug. 21 -- Sayal Rai was just 12 years old when he contracted Japanese encephalitis. Now 14, he remains in a permanent vegetative state and has been on ventilator support ever since, first at Birat Medical College and Teaching Hospital in Biratnagar and later at BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan.

"It's already been more than two years since the infection, and my son is still on a ventilator," Nirmala, Sayal's mother, a resident of Belaka Municipality in Udayapur district, told the Post over the phone from Dharan. "He cannot breathe on his own or speak, and has developed wounds on his back from lying in the same position."

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a viral brain infection that kills about one-third of those w...