Nearly 100 people have been hospitalized for encephalitis B in southwest China's Yunnan Province, a local hospital source confirmed on Saturday.

 

More than 30 of the patients were being treated at Shidian County Hospital in Baoshan, a city in the western part of the province, close to the China-Myanmar border, a hospital source told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

 

He said the hospital received more than 40 encephalitis B patients last week and several people with mild cases of the disease have been allowed to go home.

 

More patients were hospitalized at a village clinic in Jiufang Village, he said without elaborating.

 

The provincial health authority said it had sent an expert panel consisting top pediatricians to the county, an indication that many of the patients are children.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2007)