Vector-borne diseases kill 300 in UP; 5000 ill

Lucknow, Oct 5: Uttar Pradesh has been facing the menace of vector-borne diseases for the past one year with Japanese Encephalitis (JE), caused by mosquito bite, claiming 211 lives this year in the eastern parts of the state.

It had seen a lull for a couple of years, but resurfaced in 2005.

Over 1,200 people are said to be suffering from JE so far, health department and district administrations' estimates claim.

The worst hit district include Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Deoria and Maharajganj.

Chikangunya, so far active in Karnataka and Maharashtra has started spreading its tentacles in UP, with most of the Bundelkhand region effected by it.

A total of 2,000 people are suffering from chikangunya in Jhansi, Agra, Lalitpur, Jalaun and Hamirpur. A team of health experts which visited the region recently had sent some blood samples to National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi, to confirm the disease.

A report from Agra has put the death toll relating to chikangunya and dengue to seven. Pathauli village has had the maximum impact of chikungunya claiming the life of a child, while 50 others have also been taken ill.

On the other hand, dengue toll touched six in Agra after a patient died at a nursing home in Shahid Nagar.

In the state capital itelf, at least two persons have died of dengue, with over 25 persons suffering from its symptoms.

Other districts affected by the virus included Noida and Ghaziabad lying close to the national capital. Some cases were reported from Saharanpur and Farrukhabad as well.

''We have ensured availability of drugs for treatment of dengue in all government hospitals at the district level as well as community health centres and primary health centres at the village level,'' principal secretary Health and Family Welfare A K Misra said here.

UNI