Six workers contract typhoid in Shenzhen outbreak

Half a dozen people employed in factories in Shenzhen's Longgan district have been diagnosed with typhoid and six more have showed symptoms of the life-threatening disease.

Zhang Dan , deputy director of the Shenzhen Health Bureau, confirmed that tests showed six workers had contracted the infectious illness, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

The city's health bureau sent the workers to hospital after it was notified of the confirmed cases.

The newspaper also said officers had handed out preventive drugs, disinfected factories and passed out disease-prevention pamphlets in the area.

There was no confirmation of the source of the outbreak.

But one medical worker was quoted as saying the outbreak had been caused by the recent unusual weather.

The newspaper said there had been no deaths connected to the outbreak.