‘Mysterious’ disease kills 17 in Nigeria

LAGOS: A “mysterious” disease that kills patients within 24 hours has claimed at least 17 lives in a southeastern Nigerian town, the government said on Saturday.
“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 by telephone.
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.