Most of the deaths took place at Patna Medical College and Hospital in the last two weeks.
“Several more children are in various hospitals for treatment,” Sanjata Roy Choudhary, head of the paediatric department at the hospital, told.
All the dead were below 10 years and from poor families, she said, adding she also suspected that two or three children died of Japanese encephalitis.
According to hospital officials, most of the fatalities were from different villages in the flood prone districts of Muzaffarpur and Vaishali in northern Bihar.
Choudhary said that she had already informed the departments concerned of the spread of the disease in the region.
Encephalitis, transmitted by a mosquito bite, is a viral infection occurring throughout south, south east and east Asia.link
