MANAGUA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Hurricane Felix's death toll in Nicaragua increased to some 35 people at midday Thursday in its passage on Tuesday through the Northern Plateau Autonomous Region (RAAN).

    Nicaragua's Vice Health Minister Guillermo Gonzalez said on Thursday that the 35-people death toll may increase since civilian-defense brigades are still scavenging and carrying out rescue works in RAAN's inhospitable regions.

A tree uprooted by Hurricane Felix lies on top of a pickup truck in Puerto Cabezas on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast September 5, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    Nicaragua's National Disaster Prevention System (Sinapred) had reported on Wednesday at least 22 bodies after Felix had hit many RAAN municipalities, as a maximum Saffir-Simpson category-5 hurricane.

    Gonzalez said it would be risky to say there are more dead people, since the death-toll figures tend to decrease two days after Felix passed.

    The Honduran and Cuban medical brigades are attending the most difficult to access Caribbean communities and we are in permanent contact with them, Gonzalez added.

    There are still 104 missing people in RAAN, according to Civilian Defense statistics.

    But the Health Ministry (Minsa) called an urgent press conference on Thursday, as a Sinapred member, to answer questions on a possible epidemic outbreak in RAAN.

    Minsa's Epidemiology Director Juan Amador said the possible epidemic outbreaks in RAAN may include diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria.

    Amador said Minsa is sending medicaments, water, clothing, among others, to avoid epidemic outbreaks in the region affected by Felix. 

A Miskito Indian man repairs his house, damaged by Hurricane Felix, in the small town of Krukira on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, September 6, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)