Japanese Encephalitis toll at 44
Gorakhpur, Aug 7 (UNI) The toll due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in eastern Uttar Pradesh touched 44 with the death of one more child today.
Joint director health D P Mishra said the inflow of JE patients continued unabated at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College here.
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.
Sources claimed over 70 lakh children had been vaccinated this year so far, mostly with China-made vaccines.
Last year, JE had claimed more than 1,000 lives in UP alone.
Since April this year, a total of 305 people -- including four fresh cases -- sufferring from JE have been admitted at the medical college, of which 49 are still under treatment.
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.
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