Wasting disease kills 60,000

Nairobi (Reuter) - An Aids- like wasting disease has killed 60,000 people in an area of southern Sudan cut off by civil war from outside medical help, United Nations and relief sources said yesterday.

The disease, Kala-azar or visceral leishmaniasis, is spread by parasite-infected sandflies. 'Your immune system breaks down and you die of other infections,' a medical worker said. Kala-azar has been diagnosed elsewhere in the world , but the worst epidemics have probably been in Africa, medical officials said.