UP brain fever toll climbs to 197

Scores of new patients afflicted with the deadly brain fever were rushed to hospitals as Japanese Encepahlitis continued to wreak havoc in eastern Uttar Pradesh taking the official toll to 197, doctors said on Friday.

Sixty seven more patients were admitted to the government-run BRD medical college hospital in Gorakhpur in the last 24 hours, during which 12 more deaths were reported, Dr Sudan Singh, principal of the college, said.

At present, 295 patients are undergoing treatment, Dr Singh said, adding that the casualty figure did not include deaths in private nursing homes and remote rural areas.

Observing that the outbreak of the fever had acquired epidemic proportions, hospital sources said deaths due to Encephalitis had also been reported from the rural areas of Kushinagar, Maharajganj and Siddharthnagar districts.

A UNICEF team, headed by project director Dr D D Diwan, visited the hospital to take stock of the situation and discuss a surveillance system for early detection of cases, medical college sources said.

Japanese Encephalitis or brain fever is caused by a virus carried by pigs and is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. The water-logged paddy fields in the region serve as breeding ground for mosquitoes that transmit the deadly disease for which there is no cure, doctors say.

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