India struggling to cope with encephalitis outbreak in Uttar Pradesh

According to a local health official, authorities are struggling to cope with an encephalitis epidemic in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, where more than 600 people have died from the disease.

The encephalitis outbreak erupted in late July, and is centred in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, but has also spread to the state capital, Lucknow.

K.P. Kushwaha, a senior doctor in a state-run medical college in Gorakhpur town, has said the management of patients is becoming increasingly difficult, and there appears to be is no let up in new patients or in the number of deaths.

Apparently 31 people have died since Monday in the medical college alone,and most of those are children.

The symptoms of the encephalitis include high fever, severe headaches and convulsions.

Health officials admit that doctors and nurses in government hospitals, in the densely-populated region, are unable to cope with the flow of patients.

Kushwaha says they are desperately short of doctors and nurses, and available staff have been forced to perform double duties.

He is concerned because he recognises there is a limit to their stamina.

The Director-General of Health Services, O.P. Singh, in defending criticism that the government's response to the health crisis had been slow, says they are doing all that is needed.

Both local officials and media say they believe the rearing of pigs by poor people, adds to the problem, as the animals play host to the virus.