10 August,2009 02:34 PM IST | | IANS
A high alert has been sounded in Bihar after at least 39 children died of encephalitis during the last two weeks, health officials said on Monday.
The deaths occurred in the Patna Medical College and Hospital in the last two weeks. Several more children are in various hospitals for treatment, said Sanjata Roy Choudhary, head of the paediatric department at the hospital.
All the dead were below 10 years and from poor families, she said, adding she also suspected that two or three children died of Japanese encephalitis.
According to hospital officials, most of the fatalities were from different villages in the flood prone districts of Muzaffarpur and Vaishali in northern Bihar.
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Choudhary said that she had already informed the departments concerned of the spread of the disease in the region.
Encephalitis, transmitted by a mosquito bite, is a viral infection occurring throughout south, south east and east Asia.
The highest risk areas are rural areas where rice and pig farming coexist. The risk of the disease increases during and just after the rainy season.
The state health department has directed health officials in all districts to take every case of encephalitis seriously, provide treatment and take preventive measures to control its spread.
