Friday, July 6, 2012

Cambodia Mystery Deaths Updated

Excerpts from CNN

The Cambodian Ministry of Health said that 56 of the deaths were preceded by a common syndrome of fever and respiratory and neurological problems.

Seventy-four cases of the disease have been identified, the ministry said.

The children who fell ill first experienced a high fever followed by respiratory problems. Some of them also had neurological symptoms that included convulsions, according to the WHO.

Richner said the patients suffered from encephalitis, which is the inflammation of the brain.

"They are hospitalized," he said. "They arrive in our hospital; in the last moments ... they die because their lungs are destroyed."

When asked what he thought caused the deadly illness, he said: "I think our idea is an enterovirus or an intoxication of a drug," or a combination of both.

Richner added that the number of cases affected by the unknown disease is low -- 34 cases in June, compared with the 75,000 sick children at Kantha Bopha's outpatient clinics and 16,000 hospitalized kids.

The majority of the cases came from the southern part of the country, but there haven't been signs of clustering, according to the WHO.

The young patients were brought to hospitals in the capital, Phnom Penh, and the northern tourist hub of Siem Reap -- the two biggest cities of Cambodia. The Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap reported one case of the mysterious illness as of Friday, according to an e-mail received by CNN from Dr. Bill Housworth, the hospital's executive director.

"WHO supports the Ministry with the investigation and detailed analysis of each of these cases to find out the cause," wrote Dr. Pieter Van Maaren, a representative of WHO in Cambodia in an e-mail Friday.

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