Encephalitis Kills 200 in India
Posted on: Friday, 26 August 2005, 06:00 CDT
At least 200 people have died in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh in an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis.
The mosquito-borne disease, which causes high fever and vomiting and can leave patients comatose, has killed thousands in India since 1978. In the past few weeks more than 500 people, mostly children between the ages of six months and 15 years, have been treated for the disease, which occurs regularly during India's monsoon season.
Officials fear the death toll may be much higher as fatalities in poor rural areas often go unreported.
At present there is no cure for the disease once it has been contracted, but three vaccines are in use worldwide that have reportedly been successful in preventing the disease.
Although outbreaks occur every year, Uttar Pradesh authorities have failed to develop an effective program of vaccination.
Dr. T.N. Dhole, professor of microbiology at Lucknow's Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Medical Institute, said that the Indian Council of Medical Research had prevented field trials of a vaccine used in China, the BBC reported. He alleged that the institute blocked the trial in order to promote a more expensive vaccine manufactured by its laboratories. No one was available for comment when the BBC contacted the institute.
Source: United Press International
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