India encephalitis toll hits 222

Encephalitis is killing 20 children a week on average in India's most populous state where the death toll has reached 222, health officials said.

The outbreak of "brain fever" began in June and the death toll passed 150 in mid-September in northern Uttar Pradesh.

"Three more children died of encephalitis overnight taking the toll to 222. The majority of the dead were children under 10 years of age," senior health official Umakant Prasad told AFP in the state capital Lucknow.