Japanese Encephalitis in Guangdong

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Encephalitis outbreak in China

By Francis Markus

BBC correspondent in Shanghai

 

An outbreak of Japanese encephalitis has killed 18 children and infected more than 200 others in southern China's Guangdong province.

 

Hong Kong media have anxiously noted that the reported death toll has gone up more than 20-fold since Wednesday, when officials reported only one death.

Japanese encephalitis is a mosquito-borne disease which attacks the brain and the spinal cord, and is endemic to many parts of Asia.

 

There are thousands of cases in China each year.

 

But what is different this time is that it comes hot on the heels of the Sars outbreak, and in the very region where the pneumonia-like disease began.

 

It was an initial government cover-up of Sars in Guangdong that let the virus spread to Hong Kong with impunity.

 

But a Guangdong health official has denied any cover-up over encephalitis, saying the rise in numbers was just a question of data collection.

 

The World Health Organization also says it sees nothing suspicious.

 

But despite the government's belated openness about Sars, the legacy of anxiety and mistrust the disease has left behind could be hard to vanquish.