Freetown - Eight people have died of highly infectious Lassa fever in central Sierra Leone and the disease has spread to camps for Liberian refugees in the region, health officials said on Wednesday.

About 80 patients were receiving treatment at the Kenema Government Hospital, 200km east of Freetown, the manager of the disease prevention programme in the ministry of health, Magnus Gborie, told reporters.

The disease, which leads to high fever, aches, skin rashes and potential death through heart or kidney failure, is spread by bush rats that urinate on food, health officials said.

People who eat the contanimated food become infected within 24 hours. Lassa fever is endemic in both the Kenema and Kailahun districts of Sierra Leone, but has previously been kept in check with medical assistance from the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta in the United States.

However, such aid was scaled down during the civil war that wracked the west African country from 1991 to 2001.