BELGRADE, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Serbian health officials on Thursday appealed to the public to wash their hands and step up personal hygiene to stop jaundice spreading in the impoverished south of the country.

Some 400 people are infected so far by this form of Hepatitis A -- commonly known as "the poor people's disease" -- mostly in or around south Serbia's biggest city of Nis.

"Please wash your hands before dinner and after going to the bathroom. It's better to prevent the disease than to have to treat it," said Djurdja Kisin, chief of health education at the institute.

It is not deadly, but patients suffer from fever, headaches, diarrhoea, and joint and muscle pains for several weeks. Their skin and eyeballs turn yellow due to liver malfunction. (Reporting by Ksenija Prodanovic; Editing by Ellie Tzortzi)

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