The death roll of encephalitis reached 110 in north India's Uttar Pradesh Saturday when more than 20 people died of the epidemic in the past 36 hours, Indo-Asian News Service reported.

The brain fever was first reported in Uttar Pradesh late last month and is on the rise in several regions of the eastern part of the Pradesh, particularly along the India-Nepal border.

"We had the biggest rush of patients between last night and this morning, with the arrival of about 56 patients," said Dr. K.P. Kushwaha, in charge of the special encephalitis unit at the Medical College in Gorakhpur, the largest city in the region.

Encephalitis is a perennial problem during the rainy season but the situation seemed to be quite alarming this time, he said.

Source: Xinhua