Patna, Aug 10 - A high alert has been sounded in Bihar after at least 39 children died of encephalitis during the last two weeks, health officials said Monday.

The deaths occurred in the Patna Medical College and Hospital in the last two weeks. Several more children are in various hospitals for treatment, said Sanjata Roy Choudhary, head of the paediatric department at the hospital.

All the dead were below 10 years and from poor families, she said, adding she also suspected that two or three children died of Japanese encephalitis.

According to hospital officials, most of the fatalities were from different villages in the flood prone districts of Muzaffarpur and Vaishali in northern Bihar.