Anthrax has killed an elderly woman and affected 23 people in Orissa's southern district of Koraput in the past three days, officials said Wednesday.

Non-official sources however said at least three people have died in the district of anthrax.

Bimala Jani, 55, a resident of Chargaon village, died last Sunday. Clinical examination has revealed that she was having anthrax infection, district health chief K.H.Reddy told IANS over phone.

A health team rushed to this village and its adjoining village of Hatiguda after Jani's death and found 23 persons ill in these two villages. Preliminary clinical examination indicates that they are having anthrax infection, he said. They have been brought to the local hospital at Bileiguda village where they are out of danger after undergoing treatment, he said.

Anthrax is a bacterial disease that affects sheep and cattle and also those who eat infected meat of these animals. The symptoms are nausea, vomiting blood, abdominal pain, bloody diarrhoea and weakness. Death occurs in 25 to 60 percent of these cases.

Tribals in Koraput's backward villages often eat rotting meat of animals and get affected by diseases almost every year. Last month anthrax killed at least two people and infected over half a dozen in neighbouring Bandhgaon village, he said.

Reddy said that the medical team that had been camping in affected villages had to destroy rotting beef found in the homes of most villagers. 

"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.