New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) As many as 103 deaths have occurred this year till July in eastern Uttar Pradesh due to the mosquito-borne Japanese Encephalitis disease, the Rajya Sabha was informed Tuesday.
In a written reply, Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi denied that the disease is taking on an epidemic form in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
JE is a mosquito borne disease that affects the central nervous system and can cause severe complications and death.
Last year, 774 people died due to JE as compared to 684 people in 2008 in Uttar Pradesh.
The minister said the central government has been providing vaccine and logistic support since 2006 to the state to combat the disease. The re-vaccination drive was launched again in 2008 when cases started resurfacing.
Trivedi said the state government was provided 15.47 lakh vaccine doses till May this year, but the supply was discontinued after reservations over its quality was raised.
He said a small quantity was found to be unusable. But the rest was fine. He, however, said the same vaccine was also used in Kaithal in Haryana.
