Japanese encephalitis kills 929 people in south Asia

Japanese encephalitis has killed 29 more people – mostly children – in northern India, taking the death toll from an outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in South Asia to 929, officials said today.

The new deaths occurred in the state of Uttar Pradesh, bringing the state’s toll to 725, said Dr. O.P. Singh, the director general of the state’s health services. An additional 204 people have died in neighbouring Nepal.

Uttar Pradesh is an impoverished state of 180 million people, where medical health facilities are negligible and a large part of the state is prone to encephalitis.

The disease kills children annually during monsoon rains, but this season’s toll is the highest in many years.

The disease is preventable with vaccinations, but the provincial government says it does not have funds to vaccinate the children.

The disease first broke out in Gorakhpur, a town 155 miles southeast of the state capital, and has sickened more than 4,000 people in the state. More than 110 fresh cases were reported yesterday, Singh said.

Earlier this week, India’s federal health authorities said they would help northern Indian states vaccinate more than 20 million children in areas where encephalitis is considered endemic. The federal government also planned to step up aerial spraying to kill the mosquitoes spreading the disease.

In Nepal, the royal government said it is running short on the vaccine and is trying to import it from neighbouring China.