12-08 Officials seek cause of three local deaths - Was SARS already here?

Longview News Journal ^ | 12/08/02 | PATRINA A. BOSTIC

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

12-08, Local: Officials seek cause of three local deaths By PATRINA A. BOSTIC A Gregg County justice of the peace says local officials will likely have to wait until January before they get a better idea of what caused the deaths of three East Texas women who became ill and died over a span of nine days after experiencing similar symptoms late last month.

Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace B.H. Jameson requested autopsies for all three — including a teen and two women in their 40s — after they each died within 16 to 42 hours of becoming ill.

Preliminary autopsy reports from the Dallas Medical Examiner's office came back inconclusive on all three women, and final reports are pending microscopic examinations, Jameson said. He said it would be mid-January before final autopsy reports are returned.

The deceased women are Ashley Taylor, 17, of Longview, who died Nov. 30; Cheryl K. Bothwell, 42, of rural Longview who was pronounced dead Nov. 25; and Debra Ann Davis-Rust, 43, of Gilmer, who died Nov. 21.

Family members of all three women said they thought the victims had a typical, winter-season virus, displaying symptoms including vomiting, stomach cramps, difficulty breathing, chills, sweating, fever and diarrhea.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

If you follow the rest of the story it just gets stranger.

[HairOfTheDog]

Local where? - Texas?

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

Longview Texas

[TexasGunLover]

My hometown... Texas Ping...

[twigs]

An acquaintance of mine, in her early 40's, died in her sleep just before Christmas. She had had a cold for about a week and had not been feeling particularly well, but nothing to suggest that she wouldn't soon get better. I've been wondering if she could have died of SARS.

[the_Watchman]

I volunteer at a homeless men's shelter in Phoenix. Early last month before SARS was announced we had two of our guys in the hospital over a severe flu. One almost died of pneumonia. Several others had a "flu" which took over a week to shake.

When the second guy went into the hospital, he was immediately isolated until "TB" tests were performed. Does anyone know if TB is known for sudden onset? I thought it was a progressive condition.

I was wondering if there was a connection.

[mabelkitty]

I don't understand.

If it is so contagious, then why didn't they infect the whole town?

[LPStar]

I don't know what this illness was in this article. However, it seems some people are "super-spreaders" of SARS and infect dozens, while others have it without infecting other people.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

I can't remember where I came across mystery flu story. I read a story today that said the virus mutated to stomach flu and it jogged my memory. I'm not in the health profession.

[grania]

I hope some people with medical knowledge get in on this thread. It seems logical that any disease would be around for awhile before it reached a critical point where medical folks would be looking for a new explanation for unaccountable diseases.

My recollection is that after the AIDS epidemic exploded, researches looked back and found there were some very early cases. It just didn't take off until it found a vulnerable host population.

[twigs]

Yes, I believe you are right about looking back and finding earlier AIDS patients. It went back much earlier, IIRC.

[riri]

This doesn't sound like SARS. None of the deceased reported the dry coughing and difficulty breathing which is a present in most, if not all, SARS victims.

Also, none of the victims passed it on to family members.

[Trust but Verify]

My thoughts as well. Couple that with the fact that nobody connected with each of these cases became ill.

[El Gato]

A later story, from March of this year, indicates that 2 of the 3 definitely died of bacterial pnemonia, with pre-existing conditions that made them more vulnerable to the pnemonia. The results of the autopsy were still not in for the third, and youngest, victim. She however had no such pre-existing conditions, as far as her parent know.

[riri]

Seemingly healthy people do, sometimes die of pnuemonia. Case in point, 3 years ago I picked my daughter up from preschool on a Friday afternoon. Three days later when we returned the teachers assistant was dead from pnuemonia. It was the weirdest thing. We had just seen her three days prior and she appeared fine.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

I should have read my own post and saw that results would be coming back after autopsy. I will google further nextime. My apologies.