But wait, there's more. There's another, more detailed, article about the three dead people and the pathologist who examined their cadavers. Here are more links to other article, in cyberspace:
stuff.co.nz
<30 August 2003
By GAIL GOODGER
The three Dunedin people who died suddenly from unknown causes lived in neighbouring suburbs, it emerged yesterday as health authorities tried desperately to pin down why they died.
The three, who all had haemorrhages in their lungs, lived about 3km apart, in the suburbs of Corstorphine, Abbotsford and Kenmure.
They were Vincente Keith Rawson (42), known as Vince, who died on August 12; Robyn Margaret Campbell (56), who died on August 21; and Julie Margaret Millan (46), known as Julie King, who died on August 22.
Mr Rawson and Ms King died suddenly at home, while Mrs Campbell died in hospital after collapsing at home.
A student nurse who had treated Mrs Campbell was discharged from the hospital yesterday. Dunedin Hospital intensive care medical director Dr Mace Ramsay said the nurse was kept in an isolation room overnight as a precaution because she had a bad case of influenza and lived in a flat.
Another nurse involved with Mrs Campbell who also became unwell was examined at the hospital but was then allowed to return home, he said.
Ministry of Health director of public health Colin Tukuitonga said no reports of similar sudden deaths emerged yesterday after hospitals nationwide were asked to report such cases.
Institute of Environmental Science and Research infectious diseases expert Tim Blackmore said tests so far on the Dunedin cases had excluded severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), meningococcal disease, routine pneumonia and influenza.
"We're now moving into more general tests, which are old-fashioned and slower but perhaps closer to gold standard."
They would take two to three weeks to complete, Dr Blackmore said.
It was relatively common to be unable to diagnose a condition quickly because most tests were designed to identify serious, frequently occurring illnesses. However, research also indicated causes might never be determined for about one in every 200,000 deaths annually.
Having three unexplained deaths in a row was "a very rare event", but it seemed more likely to be a statistical quirk than a weird cause no-one had seen before, Dr Blackmore said.
As time passed, it was becoming apparent "we're not dealing with something that's going to go through the community like wildfire".
He said health authorities were trying to determine if:
The three people had been "very unlucky" to die suddenly of three unrelated, unexplained causes;
The three had all come into contact with an environmental toxin or non-infectious agent;
They had all been infected by the same thing, which would be remarkable given it had only infected three people in the city.
Public Health South medical officer of health Dr John Holmes said samples had been sent to the United States Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, for testing. So far, centre staff seemed "just as puzzled as we are".
Most diseases suggested as possible causes had longer lead-in symptoms, when "two people had almost literally dropped dead".
Because there had not been any more cases, it was becoming less likely the cause was contagious. As far as it was known, none of the victims had left the South Island in the past few months.
Immediate relatives who had lived with the victims were filling out questionnaires, which took about two hours to complete. The questionnaires were being handled by the University of Otago's department of preventive and social medicine, Dr Holmes said.
Dr Ramsay said the questionnaires were designed to trace the movements of each victim during the past month. The data was then compared to find any linkages, which was a time-consuming task.
Family members had also been told to go to the hospital if unwell and close contacts were being monitored. Medical professionals who had treated the three people had also been asked to report any symptoms.
Dunedin Hospital handled at least one person a month, on a rough average, with haemorrhages in their lungs caused by a variety of conditions. The patients did not usually die.
It was still uncertain if the haemorrhages had caused the death of the three Dunedin people.
A report of a fourth case was incorrect. Staff had identified a man who had been treated at Dunedin Hospital for unexplained bleeding in his lungs, but it was a recurring condition he had suffered for several years. He had not been called in for tests.
"He is another patient who has had unexplained bleeding in his lungs. He has had it for some years and been a mystery to physicians for some years," Dr Ramsay said.
"It is a possibly similar picture but this man has had this illness several times. It is not believed to be part of the current series."
Four Dunedin family doctor centres contacted yesterday said only one person had been prompted to visit after publicity about the sudden deaths.
Dr Tim Medlicott, of the Mornington Health Centre, said nobody had contacted the centre.
The deaths were "probably just a bizarre coincidence", he said. > Yeah, right....
<Most diseases suggested as possible causes had longer lead-in symptoms, when "two people had almost literally dropped dead".
Because there had not been any more cases, it was becoming less likely the cause was contagious...>
But the pathologist who did the dissections and two others who treated the victims have also caught a flu. Also, it is not correct that two of them almost literally dropped dead. Robyn was sick for days at least. Julie was sick too, leading up to her death. I'm not sure about Vince.
They say they've tested for sars, but have they really?
Mqurice
PS: There's more variation in the spelling of haemorrhagic, or hemorrhagic, or haemoerraghic, or haemorraghic than there is in the cause of death. I'm going with haemorrhagic [I like the english-style haem rather than the american-style hem]. Once we can spell it, we can move on to decoding the spelling of the bug's DNA, which is more complex.
Here's a link to the article in the previous post [I didn't need to type it out after all]http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/0,2106,2644004a6442,00.html |
