Japanese Encephalitis toll climbs to 75

Gorakhpur, Jul 13: The deadly Japanese Encephalitis (JE) toll in Uttar Pradesh has reached 75 with the death of one more child in the last 24 hours.

According to sources today, the inflow of JE patients continued unabated at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College here.

Since January 1 this year, a total of 327 people, including nine fresh cases, sufferring from JE have been admitted at the medical college, of whom 75 have succumbed. The deceased included two people of Nepal and 10 of Bihar.

As many as 42 people were still under treatment.

Last year, JE had claimed more than 1,000 lives in UP alone.

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

The endemic afflicts eastern UP during the monsoon every year.

UNI