Japanese Encephalitis toll at 29 in UP

Gorakhpur, July 27 (UNI) With one more patient succumbing here today, the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) toll in eastern Uttar Pradesh has reached an alarming figure of 29.

Joint director health D P Mishra said Babloo of Pipra town in Kushinagar district died during treatment at the local Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Since April, a total of 219 people, mostly children, suffering from JE have been admitted at the medical college, of which 55 are still under treatment.

The figure of 219 is inclusive of 12 fresh cases, that were reported in the last 24 hours, he added.

The patients belong to Gorakhpur, Deoria, Maharajganj, Sant Kabirnagar, Kushinagar, Basti, Siddharthnagar, Azamgarh, Gonda and Balrampur district of UP. Some cases also pertain to the adjoining districts of Bihar.

Gorakhpur has the dubious distiction of being the JE epicentre in the region.

The endemic afflicts eastern UP during monsoon every year.

The government had undertaken a massive vaccination drive against the vector-borne disease, however, the efficacy and penetration of the drive has come under cloud with the mounting toll.

Last year, over 1,000 people -- a majority of them children -- had died of JE. The Central and state governments had engaged in a war of words over the issue, trying to pass the buck.

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