KATHMANDU, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Two more persons died of diarrhea in Rukum district, taking the death toll to 58 alone in the district, Nepali national news agency RSS reported on Friday.

    The latest victims were identified as six-year-old Bal Bir Budha of Salyakhadi and 18-year-old Prem Kumari Bista of Gotamakotin the district, some 290 km west of Nepali capital Kathmandu.

    Rukum district is neighboring Jajarkot district, some 325 km west of Kathmandu, where the epidemic firstly broke out in April and has killed more than 150 there.

    According to their family sources, they died on the way to hospital on Thursday.

    The deaths came at a time when the Nepali government has already said that the diarrhea epidemic spreading in some western districts was under control.

    It is learnt that an increasing number of people in Salyakhadi of Rukum are suffering from the disease. Some of those, who already caught diarrhea and returned to normal condition after treatment, are said to be contracting the disease again, according to the report.

    Lack of access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation facilities has led to the disaster.

    As of Aug. 13, the Ministry of Health and Population of Nepal has confirmed 282 diarrhea related deaths within 157 diarrhea affected Village Development Committees (VDCs) of 17 districts in the Mid and Far Western Regions of Nepal since May 5.