Gorakhpur: A total of 296 children died in the Baba Raghav Das Medical College here in the month of August, principal PK Singh said on Wednesday.

He added that of these, 213 died in the neo-natal ICU and 83 in the encephalitis ward.

On the other hand, additional director, (Health), Gorakhpur, Dr Pushkar Anand said that "in the past 24 hours, 17 children with encephalitis were admitted in the medical college and two died during treatment."

Earlier, giving a break up of the causalities at the hospital, Singh said that 37 children died on August 27 and 28, of whom 26 died in the neo-natal ICU (NICU) and 11 in encephalitis wards.

Giving a month wise break up, he said the toll in January was 152, in February 122, in March 159, in April 123, May 139, June 137 and 128 in July.

The principal said that children with different complications and ailments arising out of premature delivery, being underweight, jaundice, pneumonia, infectious diseases and encephalitis were admitted to the hospital, mostly in a very serious condition.

"A lot many lives can be saved if patients are brought here earlier," Singh stressed, as per PTI.

On August 13, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had warned of 'exemplary' action against those found responsible for the horrifying tragedy.

It was said at that time that over 60 children had reportedly died at the hospital since August 7, many for want of oxygen whose supply was disrupted after bills were not paid to the vendor.

"We have formed a high-powered committee under the state chief secretary to probe the reason of the deaths of children in the BRD Medical College and the (lack of) supply of oxygen. Stringent action will be taken against the guilty, whether in Gorakhpur or elsewhere," Yogi had said at that time.

Meanwhile, the Centre has announced the setting up of a regional medical centre at a cost of Rs 85 crore in Gorakhpur for research into children's diseases.

JE and AES have claimed thousands of lives in eastern UP:

Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) have been creating havoc in eastern UP for years.

The most severely affected districts are Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Basti, Siddharthanagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Deoria and Mau.

As per the data on the website of the Directorate of National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), in 2010, UP reported 3540 cases of AES, which claimed 494 lives. JE saw 325 cases being reported in that year, and 59 lives were lost.

Similarly in 2011, 579 deaths in 3492 cases of AES were reported, while JE claimed 27 lives out of 224 cases.

In 2012, 3484 cases of AES were reported and 557 patients died, while 139 cases of JE and 23 deaths were also reported.

The AES death toll breached the 600 mark for the first time in 2013. 609 out of 3096 cases reported resulted in deaths. JE deaths too crossed the 40-figure-mark in the same year with 47 deaths reported in 281 cases.

In 2014, out of the 3329 AES cases reported, there were deaths, while for JE it was 34 deaths out of 191 cases.

In 2015, as many as 479 lives were lost due to AES of which 2894 cases were reported. JE claimed 42 lives from the 351 reported cases, according to the official data.

In 2016, 3919 cases of AES were reported in which 621 lives were lost. The death toll due to JE stood at an all time high of 73 out of 410 cases reported.

(With PTI inputs)