To: ZX12R
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/06/mystery-illness-kills-three-in-maryland-family/
Mar 6, 2012 4:25pmMystery Illness Kills Three in Maryland Family
snip
Although few details are available about the illness, infectious disease specialists speculate there could be a number of causes.
The first thing that comes to mind is influenza. It can be devastating and make people very ill, said Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. But when theyre a cluster like this, we have to wonder if it may be a mutant strain of flu virus. Theres been some concern about a swine flu variant.
Pneumonia is also a possibility, as is Legionnaires disease.
Legionnaires could cluster, and that would implicate perhaps something about this home environment, Schaffner added. Bacteria like moisture, so there would need to be an investigation of the heating and air conditioning systems.
There could also be other environmental causes, such as a toxin, or even carbon monoxide poisoning.
Dr. Gio Baracco, associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Miamis Miller School of Medicine, speculated, based on the very limited amount of information available, that the cause is non-infectious and could be something envirnonmental.
The reason is that for most infections, transmission rate is not 100 percent and the fatality rate is not 100 percent, he said. If the womans hospitalized daughter dies, the case fatality rate will be 100 percent, he explained.
The fact that theyre in the same household and theyre not seeing the same thing going on in the community is unusual, he added.
To: James Oscar
The fact that theyre in the same household and theyre not seeing the same thing going on in the community is unusual,
It's only unusual if it isn't the very first effects of a mutated virus, which it could be. Will watch to see how this unfolds.
300 posted on
03/07/2012 6:47:29 AM PST by
ZX12R
(FUBO GTFO 2012 ! We should take off and Newt washington from orbit.)
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