This correspondent visited the affected areas yesterday and the day before and talked to victim's families and health officials.

Six year-old Afroja, attacked with the disease, is now improving at Kumudini Hospital in Tangail, said doctor Dulal Podder at the hospital. He said he is treating the minor girl with anti-virus medicines. But three of her relatives died from the disease at the hospital, the doctor said.

The Tangail Civil Surgeon said the disease could be caused by a Nipah-like virus, probably carried by bats, according to experience gathered this year and last year. Any body taking a fruit eaten by bat may be attacked with the virus.

Health workers told people in the areas to be cautious about bats and not to take any fruit of a tree where bats roost, he said.

He said those treated at Tangail Sadar Hospital have shown signs of improvement. They are being treated on the basis of international clinical guidelines for such unidentified diseases, he said.

The Civil Surgeon said the disease killed 14 people in 12 days in the two upazilas since its outbreak in the first week of January this year.

Last year also, there were 10 deaths in the two upazilas from a disease showing the same symptoms seen in victims this year, he said. Five of them died in Mirjapur and five in Bashail, he said.

A strange matter is that this year and last year, the disease broke out in the same period, he said.

In all the cases, the symptoms were high temperature, headache, pain in body and convulsion, the doctors said.

Relatives of some of the victims while talking to this correspondent alleged that members of the medical teams set to the areas were often reluctant to attend the patients out of fear.

At Mohara Gonapara village in Mirzapur a young housewife alleged that health workers did not come to her house despite being informed. Her husband Nurul Islam died from the disease on Friday last.

Neighboring Ali Hossen also alleged that health assistants were informed but they did not come to see the patient. Pagla Sheel of neighbouding Chawali village died on the same day.

Harash Shikder of Baikola village in Basail upazila said he informed doctors at Basail Upazila Health Complex when his son Anwar Hossen was attacked with the disease. But they did not take any step. Anwar Hossen, 25, died.

When contacted, Basail Upazila Health Officer Dr Mohammad Rezaul Karim said the affected village was in a remote area and there was no additional arrangement when the disease broke out first. Two medical teams are working in the area now, he said.

The Civil Surgeon however denied the allegation, saying the area was very big for a handful of medical assistants.

Panic about the disease still prevails in the areas. People were seen rushing to health centres even in common cold fever and taking medicines.

The Health Directorate in Dhaka on Monday sent samples of human tissue, blood and urine collected from patients to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA for test, the officials said. Health officials from Dhaka visited the affected areas on Sunday last.