A mysterious killer disease is stalking children in Cambodia, and doctors are stumped as to what it is. Dozens of children have died, some within hours, in the hospital of the disease.
The scary thing about this disease is that doctors have no idea what it is. The good thing is that they don't believe it is contagious, so hopefully other children who were exposed to the ones who became ill will not also get sick from this killer disease.
Since April, 56 boys and girls have died from the "undiagnosed syndrome." Only one child survived the infection. That is enough to make any parent weak in the knees.
Deputy director of Cambodia's Communicable Disease Control Department Ly Sovann said, "We are looking at detailed information from the hospital records and analysing each and every case. We hope to have a better picture in the coming days."
The World Health Organization is also working with officials to figure out what the bizarre, unexplained illness is. Hopefully they are able to pinpoint the cause and develop a treatment soon before any more children lose their lives to the killer disease.
Meanwhile, any parent who has a child displaying unusual symptoms is urged to take the ill child to the hospital immediately. This has to be an incredibly scary time for parents of young children in Cambodia. The sooner authorities figure out what is going on, the better it will be for everybody's peace of mind in the region.
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Comments: 14
Is it confined only to Cambodia, or is it more widespread on the Mekong Peninsula? Based on what little info is known, it appears to be a localized problem. Therefore, I would be looking for a localized cause. Perhaps something peculiar to the Cambodian diet?
At present, 64 of 66 known cases have been fatal, all children ages 7 or younger. The World Health Organization sent a team to Phnom Penh, and they have indeed identified the disease as "Enterovirus 71." This is initially an intestinal infection associated with poor sanitation, but it can cause encephalitis and lung damage. So far, no cases from this outbreak have been reported outside of Cambodia; however, it has previously been seen in neighboring countries. At least some of the deaths are suspected as the result of improper medical care.
This hasn't been getting much coverage in the American media, but there is an up-to-date article at Al Jazeera:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/07/201278103438248264.html
The WHO concluded their investigations in Cambodia on July 12. They identified 78 cases of EV-71 including 54 deaths from a strain previously seen in China and Vietnam. Some suspected cases were determined to have been due to a type-B influenza or Streptococcus infections.
The WHO determined that about 8-in-10 Cambodian EV-71 deaths were due to use of steroids for respiratory treatment. (The director of the Kantha Bopha hospital in Phnom Penh disputes this finding.) This severely worsened neurological symptoms, making the disease appear aggressively "Polio-like." This is what caused much of the initial worry. (Polio is an Enterovirus.)
Most deaths were among children age 3 or under who were malnourished and/or suffering from other chronic illnesses. Many had also been given other drugs before arriving at Kantha Bopha.
It is now being seen in Thailand, where one death was reported in Bangkok (a severely asthmatic girl). Schools in both countries were closed to help prevent spread of the disease.
There is presently no vaccine or cure for EV-71. Proper sanitation is the best preventative measure, and children in good health are likely to survive infections.
Some links:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/other/news/jul1212enterovirus.html
http://asiancorrespondent.com/85900/cambodia-killer-ev71-disease/
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/health/304103/doctors-say-girl-death-was-caused-by-hfmd
I think my niece lived only because she arrived in Massachusetts just as she was getting sick and was sent to Children's Hospital immediately. She was saved by the excellent supportive care there (steroids, etc.) and even so, she went into kidney failure before she recovered.
If high-tech supportive care is the key to surviving this, I'm guessing those poor kids in Cambodia don't stand a chance.
It's a sad irony that best attempts to help these kids may have caused their deaths. However, poor sanitation, chronic malnutrition, and other preventable diseases are certainly at the root of the problem. Things we take for granted...
I also think that constant, excellent nursing care was one of the keys to my niece's survival.
Medical treatment in poor and rural areas of Cambodia is pretty sketchy. Sometimes it amounts to little more than a parent using a street drug to calm the crying. Combine that with a low-protein diet (a complicated issue) and other chronic diseases (sometimes AIDS), and these kids don't have much of a chance.
Given all of this, Kantha Bopha's facilities are a real light. I know that the people at the hospitals are devastated by not having been able to help these kids.
My niece received some of the world's best medical care and still went into kidney failure before she recovered. I think my brother was a bit like the parents in Cambodia-- he did not take my niece to the doctor as soon as he should have. But at least there were no dangerous drug interactions in her case.