Malda, Sept. 14: Four more persons died in the district hospital over the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 64 today.

Besides, 174 patients ? suffering from the mysterious killer fever ? have been admitted to the hospital over the same period. At present, a total of 264 people are undergoing treatment in the hospital.

Though almost a month has passed since the first case was detected in the area, the disease is yet to be diagnosed. An expert team of medical officers, led by Bijay Mukherjee of Burdwan Medical College Hospital, which arrived here yesterday, also failed to diagnose the disease.

After visiting the district hospital, the team members held a series of meetings with the district administration and health officials.

Mukherjee today told reporters: ?The disease has taken alarming proportions here. Although the disease is yet to be diagnosed, from preliminary examinations we feel that most of the patients are suffering from dengue and some have Japanese encephalitis. We have collected some of their blood samples for further tests.?

?Since we had not examined any of the patients who have died, we cannot tell what had killed them,? Mukherjee said. He added that children were the most vulnerable to dengue.

With the medical situation going out of control, the district administration today deployed two deputy magistrates at the district hospital to monitor the situation.

The administration has also sought help from the non-government-organisations (NGOs) to combat the killer disease. Additional district magistrate Bhabani Prasad Barat held a meeting with the NGOs during the day.

?We are trying our best to bring the situation under control. We are regularly using fogging machines in the town to kill mosquitoes. Besides seeking assistance of several NGOs, we have also asked each block development officer to update us of the status of his block,? Barat said.

A three-member team of mosquito experts arrived here today. The team, headed by Paritosh Adhikari, will visit those areas from where the maximum number of fever cases has been reported, said Gopal Sarkar, the chief medical officer of health.

The Englishbazar municipality has opened a medical centre at Matrisadan for treating poor patients free of cost. According to the chairman of the civic body, Nihar Ghosh, 600 to 700 people have been visiting the centre every day. ?We are referring the serious patients to the district hospital,? Ghosh said.

?We have been trying to get it across to people that there is no need to panic. If they have fever, they should go to the district hospital and get their blood tested,? Ghosh said.

Ghosh rued the fact that the karmadhaksha of health department of the zilla parishad was absent during the crisis.