The Nepali government is seeking more funds for next year's drive against Japanese Encephalitis (JE) campaign, according to a local newspaper report Sunday.

The Expanded Program on Immunisation under the Department of Health Services is in need of at least 140 million Nepali rupees ( 2 million U.S. dollars) for the campaign to cover 18 districts in the country, said the leading English newspaper, The Himalayan Times daily.

The report said that the JE campaign will be effective only if the program is conducted at least 90 days prior to the outbreak of the disease, which is usually in March and April.

This year, the JE campaign was initiated in July in four hyper- endemic mid- western Banke, Bardiya and Dang and far-western Kailali districts, some 600-700 km west of Kathmandu, covering all children above one year old.

Over 1.6 million people have been vaccinated against JE so far this year in these districts.

It was the first time that the Nepali government had launched the JE campaign on such a massive scale.

"The program can be more effective if we manage to get the funds in time," Dr Shyam Raj Upreti, chief of the EPI was quoted by the daily as saying.

Though United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund ( UNICEF) has shown interest in next year's JE campaign, nothing has been finalized yet, he added.

"The Japanese government will provide the fund and UNICEF will distribute the vaccine as discussed earlier," Upreti said.

Each year, around 3,000 get affected by the disease and around 300 people lose their lives on the average in the country, according to the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division.

A total of 35,000 people have been affected by JE since 1978 and 5,843 have died, according to the division.

Source: Xinhua