Cholera and other water-borne diseases that have claimed 39 lives since August have infected 355 more people in Orissa's Rayagada district, an official said Wednesday.

According to the latest data the state health control room received Wednesday night from the district, the number of people and villages affected by the diseases have risen from 784 to 1,139 and from 156 to 240 respectively.

However, there has been no report of fresh deaths from the district. 'The death toll remains at 39,' an official of the control room told IANS.

Cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks are not new in Rayagada district, which has been visited by the water-borne diseases almost every monsoon as rainwater slush from hilltops contaminates water sources.

The district, some 390 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, is among the most underdeveloped parts of the country and is often in the news for starvation deaths.