Health authorities in Kenya are trying to work out a strategy to stop the spread of an unidentified disease that has killed more than 170 people in a week in the north-eastern part of the country.

Unconfirmed reports say there's also been an outbreak of the disease in southern Somalia.

Kenyan police stations have been instructed to report all deaths and the description of the symptoms by radio to provincial headquarters, where details are being collated.

Aid workers have been distributing food and advising on disease

The symptoms are said to include high fever and haemorrhaging from the nose and mouth.

The regional governor Maurice Makhanu said many more were likely to have died in areas made inaccessible because of recent flooding.

He said the situation was critical and has sent out an appeal for help.

Medical officers have ruled out suggestions that the disease may be caused by the deadly Ebola virus, saying it is likely to be a severe strain of malaria.

Newspaper reports quoted medical officer, Hassan Abdi, as suggesting that the disease was a fever spread by a species of the anopheles mosquito, which also carries the malaria virus.

Provincial commissioner Maurice Makhanu told reporters in the north-eastern provincial capital Garissa on Monday that the epidemic had killed 73 people in the town and another 70 in Wajir, further north.

The area has been hit by floods

UN and other relief agencies have set up a base in Garissa to airlift food to flooded camps, where more than 100,000 refugees from neighbouring countries have been cut off since early November.

Last week the UN World Health Organisation said at least 2,687 people had died from a cholera epidemic sweeping through east Africa.
 

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