LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Indian health authorities are rushing medical supplies to some north Indian towns and villages where at least 50 people have died from fever over the past two weeks.

Dr. Vineet Shukla, a top Uttar Pradesh state health official, says patients suffering from fever and bouts of shivering are crowding hospitals in the Rohilkhand region. One hospital had received more than 1,500 patients since Aug. 30.

He says the cause of these deaths was not immediately known.

More than 200 million people live in impoverished Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. Thousands of people suffer from encephalitis, malaria, typhoid and other mosquito-borne diseases each year during the summer monsoon.

Health authorities say that during a three-month period starting from the end of July last year, there were 47 fever-related deaths.