Fifteen cases of encephalitis B have been confirmed in southwest
China's Yunnan Province, local health authorities said
on Wednesday.
Seven of the patients had been discharged from hospital and the
others were still being treated, but none of them were described as
critical and no deaths were reported, said a statement issued by
Yunnan Provincial Health Bureau.
Dozens of fever patients, mostly children, were being treated in
hospitals of Jiufang Township and Shidian County of Baoshan, a city
in the west of the province, the statement said.
The local health authorities sent an expert panel of
pediatricians to Jiufang, 44 km from Shidian, to investigate the
outbreak earlier this month when many patients complained of fever,
headaches and vomiting, the statement said.
According to the county government, the first patient, a
nine-year-old girl, was identified on April 16, and most of the
patients came from five villages of Jiufang.
The last encephalitis B outbreak to occur in Jiufang Township
was in 1991.
Encephalitis B causes inflammation of the brain and can be
contracted by people of all ages. It is usually the result of a
viral infection transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. The illness
begins with flu-like symptoms and severe headaches.
(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2007)