Health authorities in China are scrambling to allay public fears about a tick-borne disease that has killed more than 30 people since 2007, but admitted they do not know how many have been infected.

The illness known as human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) has spread to 12 provinces including Henan in central China and Shandong in the east, where the deaths have been reported, the China Daily reported Saturday.

HGA is treatable if detected early. Symptoms include fever, headache and muscle aches, but the infection can reduce a patient's white blood cell and platelet count, leading to organ failure and death.

The illness has mainly affected those aged 40 to 70, state media reported.

"So far we have no details on the general epidemic situation across the country," health ministry spokesman Deng Haihua told a press conference on Friday, calling on authorities in affected provinces to report any cases.

But Deng downplayed suggestions of an official cover-up of the outbreaks, saying it was simply difficult to raise public awareness about a little-known infectious disease.

Henan authorities only announced Wednesday that 557 people had been infected with HGA since May 2007, 18 of them fatally, after a state-run newspaper reported on a fresh outbreak in the city of Xinyang that began months ago.

A total of 182 cases have been identified in Shandong since May 2008.

HGA was first detected in Anhui province in 2006. The health ministry subsequently issued guidelines which stipulate that suspected cases be reported within 24 hours of detection, the China Daily said.

The health ministry has sent experts to Henan province to assist in epidemic control work by helping to educate local doctors about the disease, the paper said.

"It is still difficult to pinpoint the pathogen of the disease since it may be caused by a new virus," Wang Shiwen, an expert at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

earlier related report

China reports fresh cholera outbreak
Beijing (AFP) Sept 10, 2010 –

Nearly 20 middle school students have been diagnosed with cholera in eastern China, the government has said, in the second outbreak of the potentially fatal disease in the nation in a month.

A total of 19 cases have been detected at a school in Huaian city in Jiangsu province, prompting health authorities to issue a warning for the region and urge increased disease monitoring, the Jiangsu government said Thursday.

The students began falling ill on September 2, displaying common symptoms including fever, abdominal pain and serious diarrhoea and vomiting, it said in a statement.

The city is on the border with Anhui province, where authorities covered up a cholera outbreak for 12 days last month out of fears that publicising it would shock the local population, state media said earlier this week.

The Anhui health department acknowledged Tuesday that at least 38 people in the province had been sickened with cholera since August 16, with all patients already out of hospital and no new cases discovered this month.

Cholera can be fatal if not treated quickly and normally breaks out in impoverished regions with poor sanitation. Reports of cholera in China have become increasingly rare in recent years.

It was not immediately clear if the strain of cholera found in Anhui was the same as the one detected in Huaian.

No fatalities have been reported in either outbreak.

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