Baharampur: The mysterious disease has claimed 20 more lives of children taking the death toll to 39 in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.

The district health department sources said on June 10, the 20 children in the age group of one to six died in different blocks of Jangipur sub-division during the past couple of days.

5 children were now being treated in Jangipur hospital, the sources said.

Earlier 19 deaths were reported from Lalgola area of the district.

Although the disease was yet to be identified, the common symptom was high fever, the sources said adding blood and stool samples had been sent to Kolkata for examination.

Medical camps were set up in both the areas.

The Director of Health Services, Prabhakar Chatterjee who toured the affected areas over the weekend with a team of experts said in Kolkata on June 10 malnutrition, heat pyrexia and electrolyte imbalance were being considered as possible causes.

PTI