A fresh outbreak of viral encephalitis has broken out in India resulting the death of at least 15 children. The death toll from the disease this year in India has reached 358.

The disease usually strikes during monsoon season and children are usually the worst affected. At least 200 patients are reportedly still in government hospitals.

Doctors say that the infected children come between 10 and 12 districts and are mostly from the rural poor.

While Japanese encephalitis had been the dominant strain through 2005, doctors say an unidentified strain of the disease has been killing children over the 8 years. While the Japanese strain comes from mosquitoes, the new virus has an unknown origin.

A fifth of children who survive the disease suffer lifetime neurological weakness.