Encephalitis death toll tops 1000

Japanese encephalitis gripping eastern and other parts of Uttar Pradesh claimed five more lives on Tuesday, as the statewide death toll since the outbreak of the dreaded disease mounted to over 1000.

All the five deaths occurred in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Additional Director (Health) C B M Tripathi said, adding that 62 fresh cases of the illness were registered in different hospitals since Monday evening.

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The killer disease had so far claimed 826 lives in seven districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Tripathi said.

Over 200-odd people, hailing from Bihar, Jharkhand and Nepal, succumbed to the disease elsewhere in the state, officials in Lucknow said.