Seventeen now dead from mystery disease in southwest China

The state media in China says that a mysterious disease has now killed 17 farm workers and left 41 others sick, in southwest China, after they handled sick or dead livestock.

Authorities in Sichuan province have dismissed any suggestion that the deaths were caused by bird flu or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

This has been affirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO spokesman Bob Dietz, in Manila, has agreed that from the symptoms described to them by the government, the outbreak does not appear to be related to bird flu, as it does not have a large pneumonia content or a large respiratory problem.

Apparently a senior official with the Sichuan provincial health department, has said that the deaths were probably caused by a bacteria that spreads among pigs, Dietz concurs with this theory and says the symptoms described to them would fit a pig pathogen, but they will wait for an analysis from the Ministry of Health before confirming this.

SARS emerged in south China in 2002 and spread across 30 countries, infecting nearly 8,500 people and killing about 800, and re-appeared again in China last year, but with only a few isolated cases.

Initially the Chinese government was accused of covering up the disease.

A bird flu virus that has killed over 50 people in Asia since late 2003, has prompted a high alert on the part of global health officials.

In this mystery outbreak, initially, 20 farm workers became ill suffering fever, nausea and haemorrhaging after handling sick or dead pigs and sheep in 12 towns and 15 villages in Jianyang city and Ziyang city's Yanjiang district.

As health workers combed villages, more cases were reported and by noon on Saturday, 58 people were suspected of contracting the strange disease in Ziyang and neighbouring Neijiang.

According to the official news agency, at that time the victims were sent to local hospitals, where two recovered, 12 were in critical condition and 27 were stable.

The Ministry of Health and provincial officials were not immediately available for comment. Staff at Ziyang No. 1 People's Hospital declined to comment.

The WHO says Chinese authorities have responded well to the mysterious outbreak.

Apparently medical experts think the mysterious disease does not appear to be spreading further among humans and the detected cases show no obvious signs of epidemic.

Hong Kong has placed it's hospitals on alert for people exhibiting symptoms such as fever, malaise, nausea and vomiting, and are advising travellers to Sichuan to take precautions such as not touching dead animals, using mosquito repellant and reporting any illnesses to doctors.

According to local newspapers the city's two major supermarket chains, Parknshop and Wellcome, have suspended sales of frozen pork from Sichuan.

But government officials however say they were not banning such products, as the risk of the disease spreading to Hong Kong was considered low.