Officials believe more could have been done to prevent the disease

Officials said the disease was spreading to areas beyond affected districts in the east of the state.

More than 200 people are now known to have died in the outbreak of the disease in Uttar Pradesh.

There is no specific cure for the mosquito-borne disease which has killed thousands in India since 1978.

But health experts complain that red-tape has prevented the development of a more effective vaccine.

Doctors in the worst-affected Gorkahpur say that 214 people had died from the disease in the district so far.

Doctors at a hospital in the state capital, Lucknow, said that 20 people who had been admitted to the disease from other areas in the state had died.

In the past few weeks more than 500 people, mostly children, have been treated for the disease, which occurs regularly during India's monsoon.