Mystery disease kills 61 kids in Cambodia

Mystery disease kills 61 kids in Cambodia

Updated 5h 31m ago

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – Health workers are trying to determine whether a mixture of known diseases or something new is responsible for killing more than 60 children in Cambodia over the past three months, a World Health Organization expert said.

The mystery disease has killed 61 of 62 children hospitalized since April, but there's no indication it is spreading from person to person. Patients suffer a high fever, followed by severe respiratory problems that progress quickly. Some also experience neurological symptoms.

"At this stage, we cannot rule out if this is a mixture of a number of known diseases (virological, bacterial or toxicological) which have been reported as one syndrome or something new," Dr. Nima Asgari of the WHO in Phnom Penh said in an e-mail Thursday.

The patients reported were under 7 years old and spread across several provinces in southern and central Cambodia. However, work is being done to determine whether other age groups may also be affected, he said.

Health Ministry officials alerted WHO on July 1 after learning about the cases from a doctor at Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital in the capital. Many patients first visited local health facilities before coming to the city, and investigators are now trying to piece together those reports to determine more about their conditions and what treatments were given, Asgari said.

Mystery disease kills 61 kids in Cambodia

Children’s Deaths in Cambodia Linked to Hand, Foot, Mouth Virus

By Natasha Khan and Daniel Ten Kate - Jul 8, 2012 10:00 AM PT

The investigation of a mystery disease that has killed dozens of children in Cambodia is advancing after the discovery in patient samples of a virus that causes hand, foot and mouth disease.

The Institut Pasteur du Cambodge found enterovirus 71 in 15 of 24 patients sampled since mid-June, Philippe Buchy, head of the Phnom Penh-based institute’s virology unit, said yesterday by phone. The virus is known to cause the symptoms seen in the deaths of more than 60 children across the country since April, he said.

People wait with their children for free medical treatment at Kuntha Bopha Hospital in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Landov
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“This information is valuable and will help the investigation tremendously,” said Nima Asgari, leader of the emerging diseases surveillance and response group at the World Health Organization in Cambodia, which is working with the local Ministry of Health to review the illness.

The investigation team is now reviewing cases in which the patients died before tests were done to ensure they “at least clinically and epidemiologically” fit the hand, foot and mouth disease profile, Asgari said in an e-mailed response to questions.

The country’s health ministry announced July 4 that it was working with the World Health Organization to actively investigate the cause of the deaths. Preliminary findings had identified 74 cases, the World Health Organization said in a July 6 statement, with the majority of the patients hospitalized in the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital in Phnom Penh.

“We have now to see what really is causing the deadly pulmonary complication and see if a toxic factor is playing a role too,” Beat Richner, head of the hospital, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

‘Total Destruction’

Of 66 children admitted to the hospital with similar symptoms, 64 have died, most of them between the ages of two and three, Richner said. The children developed “in the last hours of their life a total destruction of the alveolas in the lungs.”

Children admitted to hospitals with symptoms including high fever, breathing difficulty and neurological problems had rapid deterioration of respiratory function, Joy Rivaca Caminade, a technical officer with WHO’s Regional Office for the Western Pacific in Manila, said July 6. The affected children suffered from encephalitis, Richner said.

Outside the hospital buildings yesterday, dozens of children and parents walked throughout the hospital grounds, while families sat in the shade to avoid the afternoon sun as they waited to hear news about their loved ones. Guards only allowed one visitor per patient into the buildings.

Mao Nath, 31, had traveled from Kampot province, about 121 kilometers (75 miles) from the Cambodian capital, to accompany her 10-year-old nephew sick with tetanus.

“I’ve heard about this strange disease and I’m concerned my nephew may also catch it,” she said while sitting on a green mat with three small children.

To contact the reporters on this story: Natasha Khan in Hong Kong at nkhan51@bloomberg.net; Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jason Gale at j.gale@bloomberg.net; Tony Jordan at tjordan3@bloomberg.net

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