The World Health Organisation says it has identified Rift Valley Fever amongst victims of a mysterious disease outbreak that has claimed 300 lives in North Eastern Kenya. The outbreak has puzzled experts, and the WHO says there may be other causes behind the high mortality figures. From Nairobi, our East African correspondent Martin Dawes reports.

Because animals were also dying, a variety of diseases including Anthrax have been suspected of causing the outbreak, which has affected mainly Nomads in the isolated north east of Kenya. But after extensive tests, the WHO says it has found Rift Valley Fever virus in samples taken from three cases.

The disease normally only affects animals, but in rare instances it can produce the haemorrhagic bleeding that has been seen in the Kenyan outbreak. The WHO says that because the affected population is undernourished and subject to severe diseases such as malaria, other causes may lay behind the high number of deaths.