An intestinal epidemic in Luliang County, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, that racked 39 villagers with severe pain, had left one person dead as of Tuesday, with three others hospitalized.

The 39 people are all from Xincun Village in the township of Damogu, which has a population of 2,100.

Four experts from the provincial disease control center arrived at the village on Monday night. The first results of their investigation suggest that the people had caught typhoid.

The dead patient was a 16-year-old farmer named Qian Yuxian. The girl caught fever, headaches and intestinal pains on Aug. 11 and died a week later in a county hospital.

A preliminary diagnosis showed that Qian died of typhoid.

The other three who are currently hospitalized in the county's People's Hospital have similar symptoms to Qian with their body temperature above 39.5 degrees Celsius.

The hospital said the three people are in a stable condition.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)