An outbreak of typhoid has hit Uzbekistan\'s central Dzhizak region, health officials said Friday. According to local hospital staff, 81 people have been admitted to the hospital in three days with the life-threatening infectious disease in the region\'s Pakhtakor town, 180 kilometers (110 miles) southwest of the capital Tashkent. But health and epidemiology officials in the region and Tashkent insisted the outbreak was much smaller. The regional epidemiology chief, Shukhrat Khaydarov, said 39 typhoid cases were recorded as of May 1. The republican sanitary and epidemiology center said 21 people had contracted the disease in the area so far. Health Ministry officials put the figure at three. Khaydarov blamed sewage for the outbreak, saying it had got into the plumbing system. The system has now been shut down and drinking water was being brought into the area in tanks. Deputy Health Minister Bakhodyr Niyazmatov visited the region earlier this week to assess the situation. This is the third outbreak of typhoid in the area in five years. (AP)