Arbaat — A man and more than 20 head of cattle died in Arbaat in Red Sea state on Thursday and Friday of an "unknown fever".

So far, three people and 420 cows have died of the unknown disease that hit the area of Arbaat, north of Port Sudan, over the past weeks, medical doctor Ahmed Dereir told Radio Dabanga on Friday.

The symptoms of the disease are high fever among people, and bleeding and abortion among cows, he said. The Preventive Medicine Society advised the people not to drink milk, and burn dead cattle before burial.

Teams of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Sudanese Preventive Medicine Society have arrived in the region to investigate the epidemic.

Activists have criticised the Red Sea state government for not making its findings on the epidemic public, despite taking samplings for research more than a week ago.

In mid-September, the Sudanese Ministry of Health reported 22 suspected cases of haemorrhagic fever in eastern Sudan's Kassala. Later this month, Radio Dabanga reported the death of ten people in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, because of Dengue fever, haemorrhagic fever, chikungunya fever, and fever caused by malaria.

Health authorities in Blue Nile and Sennar states in south-east Sudan are struggling to stem a cholera epidemic.

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