156 dead as encephalitis spreads in northern India
An outbreak of Japanese encephalitis has spread to new areas of northern India, officials said today, as 20 additional deaths pushed the toll from the mosquito-borne disease to 156 fatalities in two weeks.
Nearly 500 infected people, mostly children, remain in hospitals across Uttar Pradesh state, with 68 new patients admitted in the past day to the main hospital in the Gorakhpur district, the hardest hit area, said SP Tripathi, a doctor at the hospital.
