Epidemic encephalitis B has killed 18 people in south China's Guangdong province, which reported a total of 211 cases by June 19, local health department announced Saturday.
The disease has been reported in 11 cities or prefectures in the province, including Maoming, Zhanjiang, Meizhou and Guangzhou.
Li Jianzhong, head of the disease control section of the health department of Guangdong provincial government, said the province had adopted a reporting system on encephalitis B.
Experts with the health department of the provincial government said most of the cases had occurred since May in mountain areas of the province.
They blamed the low rate of inoculation among rural children in remote mountain areas for the outbreak.
Hygiene in those areas was poor and the high number of mosquitoes helped spread the disease.
Seven teams have been sent by the provincial health department to oversee the control of the epidemic.
In areas hit by the epidemic, medical workers are giving encephalitis B vaccine shots to those who missed out on inoculation.
The disease has an incubation period of 10 to 14 days and the sources of the disease are human or animals infected by the virus mosquito bites.
Cases of the disease were often reported in the past, mostly during May and July.
(People's Daily June 23, 2003)
