UP confirms six dengue deaths; 199 ill

Lucknow, Oct 7 (UNI) Even as the Allahabad High Court took serious note of the spread of dengue and chikungunya in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government today confirmed that six people have died of the vector-borne disease, while 199 people were effected.

This is perhaps for the first time that the government issued consolidated figures on the number of people who have either died or suffering from dengue.

The government said six people have died of the disease invarious districts, while 199 others were suffering from it.

An official release said separate wards have been created in hospitals to treat patients of dengue.

The deadly Japanese Encephalitis, caused by mosquito bite, has this year claimed 211 lives in the eastern parts of the state. The disease, spreading since the last year after a two-year gap, resurfaced again 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.

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

A total of 2000 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 for confermative to confirmation.

UNI NAB VD GC1826