In Uttar Pradesh, swine flu H1N1 cases have swelled from 50 last week to more than 80 till yesterday, in the capital Lucknow.

The super speciality hospital of state, Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Post graduate Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) has 65 swine flu infected cases and all of them are employees of the institute.

Most of these employees are from Microbiology department of the institute which got infected while treating the patients of H1N1 cases.

AIR Correspondent from Lucknow reports that Chief Medical Officer Dr S.N.S Yadav has said, despite being sudden spurt in swine flu cases, no one is serious and all of them are well under control. He has asked the director of SGPGIMS to make available large quantity of disposable napkins for all the entrants of PGI campus.

SGPGIMS authorities have said that all the in-house patients with even normal flu symptoms are being thoroughly investigated to detect the swine flu. They said, utmost care is being taken to check its further spread.

Meanwhile Uttar Pradesh, 5 more children have succumbed to encephalitis at BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur during the last 24 hours.

With this, the death toll due to the disease, has mounted to 263 this year. Our Gorakhpur Correspondent reports that three more encephalitis patients have been admitted to the hospital during the period.

As many as 260 patients are being treated at BRD Medical College Hospital and other government hospitals of the region.

 As many as 765 people died this year due to Japanese encephalitis in the country. These include the maximum of 275 in Bihar followed by 214 in Uttar Prades and 213 in Assam. Giving this information in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that his ministry has identified 171 Japanese encephalitis-prone districts in the country, 60 of which are in Assam, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The Health Ministry data shows that the disease claimed 1,169 lives last year, 679 in 2010 and 774 in 2009.

The Uttar Pradesh, Government has made an elaborate action plan to curb Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, AES that are prevailing in the eastern part of the state for past 34 years.  The Japanese Encephalitis occurs due to mosquito bites while AES is caused by the viruses present in contaminated water. Our Gorakhpur correspondent reports that a water testing lab will soon be established in Gorakhpur at the cost of 70 crore rupees while 124 ventilators are being given to the hospitals in the area for better treatment of the disease. Centre has sanctioned an amount of 525 crore rupees for sanitation and providing safe drinking water in 60 encephalitis affected districts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. Our correspondent reports that Japanese Encephalitis, commonly known as Japanese Brain fever has claimed lives of over 20,000 children during past 34 years. In recent years, water-borne encephalitis has also surfaced which takes the life of adults as well.  The disease has no treatment but only hygiene and safe drinking water can save the lives of the people. In a review meeting in Lucknow yesterday, the chief secretary Javed Usmani instructed the effective implementation of various schemes of sanitation and safe drinking water in the affected area. He has also instructed the medical officers to camp in the affected villages from 15th July to 15th November to supervise the action plan to curb this menace.  Ambulances will be placed at strategic places to rush the encephalitis patients to nearest health centre or referral hospitals.  The number of brain fever cases is bound to come down if the schemes are implemented in a truer sense.