A "mysterious" disease that kills
patients within 24 hours has claimed at
least 17 lives in a southeastern Nigerian
town, the government said.
"Seventeen people have died
of the
mysterious disease since it broke out
early this week in Ode-Irele town," the
government spokesman for Ondo state,
Kayode Akinmade, told AFP news
agency on Saturday.
The disease, whose symptoms include
headache, weight loss, blurred vision
and loss of consciousness, killed the
victims within 24 hours of their falling
ill, he said.
Laboratory tests have so far ruled out
Ebola or any other virus, Akinmade
added.
The World Health Organisation said it
had information on 14 cases with at
least 12 dead.
"Common symptoms were sudden
blurred vision, headache, loss of
consciousness followed by death,
occurring within 24 hours," spokesman
Tarik Jasarevic told AFP.
Akinmade said health officials and
experts from the government and aid
agencies, as well as WHO
epidemiologists, have arrived in Ode-
Irele.
"Outside a total of 17 deaths recorded,
in the past 72 hours we have not
recorded new cases. There is no patient
of the disease in any hospital and the
disease has not spread beyond the
town," he said.
Jasarevic said blood and urine samples
had been taken from two victims and
cerebrospinal fluid from another.
"All samples have been sent to Lagos
University Teaching Hospital this
morning, and results are still pending.
Investigations are still ongoing," he
said.
