NEW DELHI, June 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Anthrax has killed an elderly woman and affected 23 people in west India's Orissa Pradesh in the past three days, Indo-Asian News Service reported Wednesday.

    Bimala Jani, 55, a resident of Chargaon village in the southern part of Orissa, died last Sunday. Clinical examination found that she was having anthrax infection, said District Health Chief K. H. Reddy.

    A health team rushed to this village and another nearby village Hatiguda after Jani's death and found 23 persons infected by anthrax, he said.

    The ill have been out of danger after receiving treatment at a local hospital.

    Anthrax is a bacterial disease that affects sheep and cattle and catches human if they eat infected meat. Those infected will have nausea, vomiting blood, abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea and weakness. Death occurs in 25-60 percent of these cases.

    Tribe people in Orissa's backward villages often eat rotting meat and get affected by diseases almost every year. Last month anthrax killed at least two people and infected over half a dozen in neighboring Bandhgaon village, Reddy said.

    The medical team had to destroy rotting beef found in most villagers' houses.

    "Over a dozen villages in the district are prone to anthrax because of the residents' eating habit. We have been trying to create awareness among them, asking them not to eat such meat," he said. Enditem