Kathmandu: Altogether 35 people have succumbed to Japanese encephalitis infection in Nepal in 2025.
According to National News Agency Nepal, Dr. Abhiyan Gautam, Chief of Child Health and Immunization Service Section in the Ministry of Health of Population, reported a total of 179 cases of Japanese encephalitis this year out of 1,739 suspected patients.
Dr. Gautam noted that last year, 24 people lost their lives to this mosquito-borne infection. He expressed concern over the annually increasing death toll from Japanese encephalitis in the country, highlighting that 7 people died due to this infection in 2023, one in 2017, and four in 2014.
The age range of those diagnosed with Japanese encephalitis this year spans from 3 to 89 years. The disease is transmitted to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes of the Culex species. Out of the 77 districts in Nepal, 28 are considered to be at high risk of this infection, which is in the same group of infections as dengue.
Dr. Gautam mentioned that most of the deaths reported from Japanese encephalitis are individuals over 40 years of age. However, the majority of cases, as indicated by the WHO, occur in children below 15 years of age. In Nepal, according to Dr. Gautam, 82 percent of children have been vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis.