KATHMANDU, Sept 13, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Over 200 people, most of them children, have died of Japanese encephalitis over the last six weeks in Nepal, an official at the Department of Health said Tuesday.
"So far over 1,200 cases of Japanese encephalitis have been reported, and most of them in the districts of Terai Belt," Mahendra Bahadur Bista, director of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division at the Department of Health, told reporters.
"The government has launched programs like spraying insecticides to kill mosquitoes that transmit the deadly disease, immunise children and distribute mosquito nets at affordable prices," Bista noted.
The death figure reflected cases registered at the government- run hospitals only. Number of people who died in their own villages, while undergoing treatment at private clinics or across the border in India could be much higher, according to Bista.
Reported for the first time in Nepal in 1978, Japanese encephalitis affects thousands of people in bordering areas of Nepal and India every year. Medical doctors advise people to maintain cleanness around their houses, fill in ditches, where mosquitoes could lay their eggs, and use mosquito nets during the night.
Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dang and Rupandehi districts in western Nepal are more affected from the disease.