Encephalitis Kills Another 55 in India

(09-11) 19:53 PDT LUCKNOW, India (AP) --

Nearly 650 people, mostly children, have died from an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in northern India after 55 more people perished over the weekend, officials said Sunday.

Hospitals in India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, were struggling to cope with the influx of patients suffering from the mosquito-borne disease. Another 87 people were hospitalized during the weekend, bringing the number of patients to more than 3,040, said O.P. Singh, the state's director general of health services.

But the number of new infections has declined in recent days, Singh said. With 55 deaths since Friday night, the overall death toll reached 649.

No new deaths have been reported in neighboring Nepal, where the disease has killed 172 people since April. Some Nepali victims were being treated in India, officials said.

Japanese encephalitis causes high fever and vomiting, and can sometimes lead to coma and death. Children are most susceptible to the disease, and many of the dead in the outbreak have been under age 15.

The disease can be prevented by vaccinations, but state health authorities say they don't have enough money for an immunization program.

The latest outbreak first struck in Gorakhpur, a town 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Lucknow, the state's capital, and later spread to 24 of 70 state districts.

Authorities expect the outbreak to ebb by the end of the monsoon season later this month.