Japanese Encephalitis kills 5 more; toll at 111

Gorakhpur, Aug 2 (UNI) With the deaths of five more children in the last 24 hours, toll due to the vector-borne deadly Japanese Ecephalitis (JE) has reached 111.

The fresh casualties were reported from Kushinagar (2), Gorakhpur (1), Sant Kabirnagar (1) and Basti (1).

Last year, the deadly JE had killed almost 1,000 people in UP, while the scourge has already killed several thousands of people in the region over the last decade.

According to official sources, so far, 541 JE patients had come to the Baba Raghav Das Medical College here, of which 111 had died.

In the last 24 hrs, 18 patients were admitted to hospital. Almost 105 JE patients were still convalescing.

JE patients mostly trickle from Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Sant Kabirnagar, Deoria, Kushinagar, Basti, Siddharthnagar, Azamgarh, Gonda, Bahraich, Mau, Ballia and Balrampur districts of UP.

Gorakhpur has the dubious distinction of being the JE epicentre in the region.

The endemic afflicts eastern UP during monsoon every year and continues to take people under its jaws till the onset of winters.

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