Kathmandu, Dec 22: Altogether 35 people succumbed to Japanese encephalitis infection in Nepal in 2025.
According to Dr Abhiyan Gautam, Chief of Child Health and Immunization Service Section in the Ministry of Health of Population, a total of 179 cases of Japanese encephalitis were reported this year out of 1,739 suspected patients.
Last year, 24 people lost their lives to this mosquito-borne infection, informed Dr Gautam. Expressing concern over the increasing death toll from Japanese encephalitis annually in the country, Gautam shared that 7 people died due to this infection in 2023, one in 2017 and four in 2014.
He informed that people aged between 3 years to 89 years had been diagnosed with Japanese encephalitis this year.
Japanese encephalitis is transmitted to human through bites from infection mosquitoes of the Culex species.
Out of 77 districts, 28 are at high risk of this infection, that is in the same group of infection as dengue.
Dr Gautam mentioned that most of the deaths reported from Japanese encephalitis are over 40 years. The majority of the cases, as put by the WHO, occur in children below 15 years of age.
In Nepal, according to Dr Gautam, 82 per cent of children have been vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis.#nepal #rss
