Encephalitis Kills Indian Children

Eighty children died from encephalitis last week in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar, and 210 children have been hospitalized with the disease, an official said Sunday.

Unofficial counts put the death toll at about 150.

For five days, the disease remained a mystery as the doctors at the Sri Krishna Medical College in Muzzaferpur had no facilities to test for the virus. Teams of experts then came in other states and made the diagnoses, said A.K. Biswas, a local administrator who released Sunday’s figures.