DEADLY VIRUS KILLS OVER 200 PEOPLE, 400 WARDED IN UTTAR PRADESH HOSPITAL

By P. Vijiyan

NEW DELHI, Sept 9 (Bernama) -- A deadly virus outbreak that attacks the
brain has killed nearly 230 people, majority children, while another 400 people
have been warded in hospitals in Uttar Pradesh state.

Initial reports revealed that a large number of victims from poor villages
succumbed to the Japanese Encephalitis (JE), but doctors now worry that the
dangerous enterovirus could be the main culprit.

"Two major causes are Japanese Encephalitis and the more complicated is the
enterovirus, which is linked to polio-viruses and Coxsackie that affects the
whole body, especially the brain," Dr K. P. Kushwaha, head of Paediatrics
Department in BRD (Baba Raghav Das) Medical College, based in Gorakhpur
district, told Bernama Thursday.

Uttar Pradesh, one of India's most backward states lacking in proper
healthcare facilities and clean drinking water, compounded the medical distress
since July, at a time when the monsoon also arrived in the northern region.

The Indian Express reported that BRD Hospital's emergency centre was
brimming
with patients, where two or three sick people had to share a single bed, and
villagers were living in "fear and panic".

People in at least 10 districts were exposed to the virus, the
worst-hit
being the Gorakhpur district in the state.

Last year, 556 people were reported dead in Uttar Pradesh, but 2005 was a
most tragic year for the villagers when the outbreak killed 1,200 children in
Gorakhpur, said the newspaper.

"Here, we do not have proper healthcare facilities. There are no toilets and
safe drinking water. It is a complex problem.

"Children suffer inflammation of the whole body and most of them come from
poor background. No single drug is available to treat patients, we have to
prescribe multi anti-viral drug to treat different affected organs," said Dr
Kushwaha.

-- BERNAMA