JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS - INDIA (07): (UTTAR PRADESH

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Purvanchal_in_the_grip_of_a_killer_virus/articleshow/3693091.cms>
Death stalks the dingy corridors of Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur. Fear and anxiety are palpable, particularly in the medicine and paediatrics wards on Friday afternoon [7 Nov 2008]. Loud wails rent the air as ward boys cart away yet another victim of a mystery disease.
The death toll in the medical college alone since this May 2008 has risen to 421, and there's no sign of letup. But, away from the chaos that has in its grip the entire endemic pocket of Purvanchal, experts carry on academic debates to fix the identity of the killer virus, which has in some form or other claimed more than 3000 lives in the past 5 years.
Interestingly, there is a marked sense of relief among the group that Type-B Arbo, which causes Japanese encephalitis (JE) cannot be blamed solely. It could be another mutant [virus], offers Dr K P Kushwaha, head and professor of paediatrics at the BRD medical college.
There is, in any case, a wide variety to pick from: enterovirus, eco virus [echovirus? - Mod.SH], Coxsackie-B mutant, Saharanpur encephalitis, and the killer weed that took 600 lives in 2006, or the convenient [uncommitted] acute encephalitis syndrome.
An interactive map showing the location of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, India can be accessed at <http://www.travelpost.com/AS/India/Uttar_Pradesh/Gorakhpur/map/6756589>.

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