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Mystery Illness Kills Missouri Soldier

"Mystery" just means the disease that killed this poor soldier
(and whatever afflicts some of the other deployed) is:

1. Something exotic our military doctors can't recognize
AND/OR
2. A disease course that the doctors haven't gotten a full story on, so it's
a challenge for them to solve
AND/OR
3. A combination of syndromes that makes diagnosis very challenging
AND/OR
4. Represents some sort of diagnostic "perfect storm" combined of 1-3 above,
M.D. ignorance/incompetence, or "the great unknown".

I'm not an M.D., but just say this having lived this long thanks to the help
of very competent (and I might add compassinate and concerned) M.D.s and
having suffered at the hands of a couple M.D.s who I suspect at least
lost their edge a year or two out of med school/residency.

Agreed. I'm not ready to screw on my tin-foil hat...but I am rubbing my chin and looking thoughtful. So far this has been very low key considering there have been 2 deaths of young, healthy people.

11 posted on 07/26/2003 10:53:09 AM PDT by SpeakLittle_ThinkMuch ("If you don't read the paper, you are uninformed. If you do read the paper, you are misinformed."...)

"A disease course that the doctors haven't gotten a full story on, so it's
a challenge for them to solve"

Since this soldier was assigned to an Engineer Battalion, he may have been involved in grading or other earth moving operations that stirred up a lot of dust. If so, he may have contracted something similar to Valley Fever which is sometimes fatal.