23 July 2010
By Kounteya Sinha
New Delhi, India
Japanese encephalitis (JE) has become a serious problem in the country. A review by Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on July 19 showed that the nation has already recorded 749 cases of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and 115 deaths.
The worst–affected state has been UP, which has recorded 425 AES or JE cases and 74 deaths.
Vaccination claims made by the most–affected states like UP, Assam and West Bengal have now been questioned by Unicef. While JE vaccination coverage in Gorakhpur and Bahraich has been shown by the UP government to be 97% and 100%, Unicef’s own assessment says it won’t even have crossed 52.3% and 50.5%
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