Japanese encephalitis is a mosquito-borne virus which can produce an acute encephalitis leading to seizures, coma or death. An ongoing encephalitis outbreak in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India has now claimed 319 lives, mostly children. While some news sources attribute all of these deaths to Japanese encephalitis, others report cases due to both Japanese encephalitis and to a water-borne enterovirus . Also this week, South Korean authorities have reported the first case of Japanese encephalitis in the conutry this year. While both India and South Korea have historically had outbreaks (see CDC’s distribution map), South Korea’s vaccination campaigns have lead to a great reduction in cases and deaths.
