At least 50 people have died and up to 25,000 affected in a malaria epidemic in northeast India 's Assam, Indo-Asian News Service reported Tuesday.

Since the beginning of April, around 50 people had died of cerebral malaria and two districts in the eastern part of the state Lakhmipur and Golaghat were the worst hit, said Bhumidhar Barman, health minister of the Assam state government.

"Doctors and paramedics have fanned out to take preventive steps and cure those hit by the disease," Barman said.

Northeast India is a known malaria zone with the disease claiming an estimated 500 lives annually.

"We have enough stocks of anti-malaria drugs and diagnostic kits," Barman said.

But Assam has suffered an acute shortage of paramedics and auxiliary nurses.

"About 800 malaria surveillance workers need to be recruited and we had planned to fill up the vacancies in March but could not do so," Barman said.

Source: Xinhua