(VOVworld) - A "mysterious" disease that kills patients within 24 hours has claimed at least 17 lives in Ode-Irele, a southeastern Nigerian town, the government said. The government spokesperson for Ondo state Kayode Akinmade said the disease, whose symptoms include headache, weight loss, blurred vision and loss of consciousness, killed the victims within 24 hours of their falling ill. But he said outside a total of 17 deaths recorded, in the past 72 hours they have not recorded new cases. There is no patient of the disease in any hospital and the disease has not spread beyond the town," he noted. Laboratory tests have so far ruled out Ebola or any other virus, Akinmade added. Health officials and experts from the government and aid agencies, as well as WHO epidemiologists, have arrived in Ode-Irele.