Originally published October 4 2005
Encephalitis outbreak hits India and Nepal hard
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Monsoon rains are being blamed for the outbreak of encephalitis, which so far has killed 1,166 people, many of them children too poor to afford the $1.30 vaccine.
JAPANESE encephalitis has killed 1166 people -- mostly children -- in the worst outbreak in decades in northeastern India and Nepal.
Officials blame monsoonal rains for the crisis because the mosquitoes that carry the illness breed in puddles.
Medical officials from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh reported an extra 45 deaths at the weekend, bringing India's toll to 895.
At least 271 people have died in Nepal.
"We are desperately hoping for the rains to go away," said Dr Avnish Mehrotra, of Uttar Pradesh's Health Department.
"We do not have the resources to control a catastrophe of this magnitude," he said.
"Nature should step in and stop the children from dying."
The brain-infecting illness -- which causes blinding headaches, seizures, nausea and high fever -- can be prevented by a vaccine costing $1.30 a dose, a sum out of reach for many poor villagers.
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