In a recent letter to the central government, the state said that it would help bring the situation under control and provide better diagnostic facilities.

The Centre had supplied around 40 metric tonnes of malathion for spraying in areas having a high density of vector population.

As the number of fever cases — be it encephalitis, malaria or viral fever — started rising, and the waterlogging caused by heavy rains showed no signs of abetting, the state government felt the need to have more malathion at hand to ensure that proper fogging was done in all affected areas.

“We have demanded extra supply of around 30 metric tones of malathion and expect that it would reach here next week,” said Prashant Trivedi, Secretary, Medical and Health, Uttar Pradesh Government.

Also, with the state facing shortage of rapid blood testing kits in the district, it has demanded around one lakh such kits.

“These are necessary to facilitate quick diagnosis so that treatment can be started soon. This will prevent spreading of rumours of mysterious fever. We expect that this demand will also be met soon,” Trivedi added.

Chief Minister Mayawati, meanwhile, said that the state government has requested the Union Health Minister to provide medicines and necessary equipment for treatment of people affected by malaria.

She said that so far around 50,000 people have been treated for fever by Health Department in Kanpur Dehat.

She said of the 12,600 blood slides made for testing, just 600 were found positive for malaria and rest had fever due to other viral infections.

Of the 124 who died in Kanpur Dehat, she said fever has killed only 21, the rest were suffering from other viral diseases.