Japanese Encephalitis toll reaches 31

Gorakhpur, July 29 (UNI) With three more patients succumbing in the last 24 hours, the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) toll in eastern Uttar Pradesh has reached an alarming figure of 31 this year so far.

Joint director health D P Mishra said the patients' inflow was continuing at the local Baba Raghav Das Medical College.

Since April, a total of 227 people, mostly children, sufferring from JE have been admitted to the medical college, of which 50 are still under treatment.

The figure of 227 includes 12 fresh cases.

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

Gorakhpur has the dubious distinction 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.

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