Korea Raises Alert for Japanese Encephalitis

A heightened warning for Japanese encephalitis has been issued across Korea.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said they raised the alert level from April based on analysis of mosquitoes collected in Busan last Thursday, of which 64.2 percent were Culex tritaeniorhynchus, a carrier of the Japanese encephalitis virus.

Not all mosquitoes of the species carry the virus and 95 percent of people bitten by the mosquito show no symptoms at all. But some bites can cause encephalitis, so special care is needed to avoid bites.

Last year, 40 people were infected with the disease, the most since 2001.