India encephalitis outbreak kills 400, mainly children

So far 2,300 patients have been admitted to a hospital in the affected Gorakhpur area of Uttar Pradesh state.

A doctor told the BBC that it was a "tragedy beyond imagination", with children dying every day.

Nearly 6,000 children have died of encephalitis in the hospital since the first case was detected in 1978.

Most of the deaths this year have happened since July, doctors say.

The disease occurs regularly during the monsoon in the Gorakhpur region bordering Nepal in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The low-lying areas are prone to floods, providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes which commonly transmit the virus.

'Tragedy'

Doctors say affected patients come from 10-12 districts in the region, and are mostly poor.

Until 2005, the majority of deaths were caused by Japanese encephalitis, caused by a mosquito-borne virus, doctors say.

But in the past six years, children have been dying of other forms of viral encephalitis, the exact cause of which is unclear.

One possibility is a water-borne virus present in contaminated water, doctors say.

The diseases cause head aches and vomiting and can lead to comas, brain dysfunctions, seizures and inflammations of the heart and kidney.

Doctors say children between the age of six months to 15 years are worst affected and most of the victims are poor people from rural areas; Kazinform cites BBC.

To learn more go to www.bbc.co.uk