Seoul, Jun 17 (IANS): Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has sent medicine to help people stricken with a new infectious disease in the country's southwestern region, Pyongyang's state media said on Friday.

In a report, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that Kim Yo-jong and other government officials asked the "primary Party committees of their departments to send medicines prepared by their families with sincerity to households in Haeju city and Kangryong county of South Hwanghae province where an acute enteric epidemic occurred".

Jo Yong-won, an official from the North's ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said he will organise the transportation of medicine to over 800 families suffering from the infectious disease, the KCNA reported.

On Thursday, North Korea announced an outbreak of an "acute enteric" infection in Haeju, with at least 2,000 people likely to be affected, reports Yonhap News Agency.

It did not specify what the disease is but it appears to refer to infectious diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, and cholera, which most frequently result from consumption of contaminated food or water and through the feces of infected patients.

Concerns have grown over the impact of the virus outbreak in the impoverished country known for its fragile health care system and chronic food shortages.