NEW DELHI, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The Government of Assam in north-east India Tuesday sounded an alert following a malaria epidemic that claimed at least 25 lives and affected about 10,000 people in the area recently, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported here.

    "Doctors and paramedics have been put on alert across Assam with medical teams, including mobile units, fanning out to vulnerable areas to check the spread of malaria," IANS quoted Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as saying.

    Eight of Assam's 29 districts have been hit by the mosquito-borne disease.

    "Between January and April, some 25 people have died of malaria and 9,721 people tested positive for the disease in the same period," the minister was quoted as saying.

    Unnamed experts said that an early monsoon had caused the outbreak of malaria, according to IANS.

    However, the news agency reported that the health minister had said the situation was under control.

    Government is worried the disease might spread among hundreds of Indian troops deployed along the Indo-Bhutan border.

    "We are providing soldiers with specially designed medicated mosquito nets and insect repellents as a precaution against malaria," IANS quoted an unnamed army commander as saying.

    In the last five years, at least 50 army and paramilitary soldiers in Assam have died of the disease.