"China reported that approximately 20 days ago, a man suddenly died from an unidentified disease in Wanjiakou Village, Xiaoguan Town, Wendeng City, Shandong Province. His entire body turned dark purple, and he bled from his mouth, nostrils, ears, and eyes just as he died.

Shortly after the man died, 2 other men who been in contact with him, died showing the same symptoms. Villagers who had left the village to work said "3 people died 10 days ago.

The death toll from a hitherto rare disease has risen to 24 in southwest China, with more than 117 people feared infected. Chinese health officials report that the disease is caused by known bacteria from pigs, though the size and virulence of the outbreak has baffled the World Health Organization.

"It's never occurred in an outbreak this big before," WHO spokesman Bob Dietz told AFP. "We're accustomed to seeing only one or two cases. We're not accustomed to this large number of people getting infected. And we don't understand why that is."

The disease is believed to be caused by the pig bacterium Streptococcus suis. The first cases surfaced in June 2005 in two cities in China’s Sichuan province. All cases were either farmers that had butchered infected pigs or people who later handled the contaminated pork products, says the Chinese Ministry of Health. No person-to-person transmission has been reported.

High mortality rate
The first recorded human case of S. suis was in Denmark in 1968. Only 200 cases have been reported since then, excluding the current outbreak. Dick Thompson, a WHO spokesman in Geneva, says full laboratory reports on the 76 confirmed and 41 suspected infections will help experts to understand why this outbreak has grown so large and deadly.