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CHICAGO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A rare and sometimes deadly pneumonia has hit 18 U.S. soldiers deployed in Iraq, and Army medical investigators are at a loss to explain the cause, according to a study published on Tuesday. In a report appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center said two of the soldiers had died from the rare illness, called acute eosinophilic pneumonia, or AEP. No common source was found for the outbreak that occurred between March 2003 and March 2004 among the soldiers in Iraq. The study covered only...

Sudden death raises SARS fear Published: December 18, 2003 By MATTHEW D. LaPLANTE Of the News-Register A McMinnville woman's sudden death at Willamette Valley Medical Center, following a trip to China, has state and local health officials investigating the possibility of SARS. However, the same officials say the likelihood of the disease is slim. "We are considering SARS testing. We are having discussion with people trying to make sure they know this has crossed our minds," said Paul Cieslak, manager of the state Department of Human Services' communicable disease program. "But right now, it's so very unlikely." Cieslak said the...

Mystery blood clots kill U.S. troops Monday 06-Oct-2003 8:58PM Story from United Press International Copyright 2003 by United Press International (via ClariNet) WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Several U.S. soldiers in the Iraqi war died from sudden illnesses and a United Press International probe shows those were triggered by unexplained blood clots. The Pentagon says blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died from what the military has described as non-combat-related causes. NBC reporter David Bloom also died of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing near Baghdad....

Mystery blood clots felling U.S. troops By Mark Benjamin Investigations Editor Published 10/6/2003 12:41 PMView printer-friendly version WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Unexplained blood clots are among the reasons a number of U.S. soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom have died from sudden illnesses, an investigation by United Press International has found. In addition to NBC News Correspondent David Bloom, who died in April of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing south of Baghdad, the Pentagon has told families that blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died...

Thu September 11, 2003 06:34 PM ET By Paul Simao ATLANTA (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said on Thursday it did not know what had caused an outbreak of a severe type of pneumonia that killed two soldiers serving in Iraq and caused 17 on duty in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to be hospitalized. The illnesses, which were reported in a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, occurred between March and August in a group of full-time active duty personnel and reservists deployed in Iraq, Kuwait, Djibouti, Qatar and Uzbekistan....

A Dunedin woman complained of flu-like symptoms not long before her 12-year-old daughter heard a thump and found her dead on the floor of their home. Julie Millan died suddenly last Friday at her home in the central Dunedin suburb of Mornington from what is thought to have been a pulmonary haemorrhage - bleeding in the lungs. The 46-year-old housewife's death is similar to that of two other west Dunedin residents who died this month with unexplained lung haemorrhages. But deadly coincidence is considered the most likely explanation for the sudden cluster of mystery deaths. The three were unknown to...

Hospitals have been placed on high alert over a mystery disease that has killed three people. Two died within an hour of collapsing. Health authorities said last night that they were startled at the sudden deaths of two women and a man in Dunedin and were "very concerned" that the disease killed so quickly. They issued a nationwide alert, mostly to warn hospitals to watch out for symptoms but also to find out whether the disease had spread beyond Dunedin. At a press conference last night, they ruled out Sars as a cause but said they had no idea what...

Published 8/7/2003 6:13 PM WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The father of a soldier who died of pneumonia this spring said Thursday the Army has excluded her death from its investigation of deadly pneumonia because it wants to cover up vaccine side effects. "The government is covering this up and it is a dog-gone shame," said Moses Lacy, whose daughter, Army Spc. Rachael Lacy, died April 4 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after getting pneumonia. Lacy said his daughter "was a healthy young woman" but got ill within days of getting anthrax and smallpox vaccinations on March 2...

7 more cases of mystery illness Military trying to identify malady that killed lake area soldier By Marsha Paxson Lake Sun LAKE OF THE OZARKS -- Seven more soldiers in Iraq have contracted the same puzzling illness that has killed two soldiers, including one from the lake area. The latest cases bring the number of affected troops to 19. All have been evacuated to the same Landstuhl, Germany, hospital where Spec. Josh Neusche, 20, of Montreal was treated before he died July 12. It is believed Neusche contracted the illness, first thought to be pneumonia, while conducting cleanup operations with...

<p>Two more U.S. soldiers serving in the Middle East were placed on ventilators this week after developing severe pneumonia, Army officials said Thursday. Since March 1, approximately 100 troops have been afflicted with the illness, according to a news release from the Army Surgeon General. Of those cases, 14 have been placed on respirators and two have died — including Missouri National Guard Spc. Joshua Neusche of Montreal, in Camden County.</p>

THE Pentagon admitted yesterday that it could not explain a deadly spate of pneumonia among US troops serving in the Middle East. About 100 US soldiers, mostly in Iraq, have contracted the illness. Two had died and another 15 became seriously ill, requiring the support of a ventilator. The US Army dispatched two investigative medical teams last week to Iraq and Germany -- where many of the infected troops have been treated -- but tried yesterday to talk down the possibility of biological weapons or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome being involved. ``Based on all the information we have to date,...

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army should look at whether the anthrax vaccine is behind the unexplained cluster of pneumonia cases among soldiers in Iraq, according to the co-author of a government-sponsored study that last year found the vaccine was the "possible or probable" cause of pneumonia in two soldiers. Dr. John L. Sever of George Washington University Medical School told United Press International Tuesday that he expects the military to consider the anthrax vaccine, among other possibilities, as it investigates pneumonia among soldiers in and around Iraq, where troops have been widely vaccinated against anthrax. The Pentagon...

The United States Army has dispatched a team of medical experts to Iraq to investigate a serious outbreak of pneumonia among US troops, with two dead and more than 100 ill. Lieutenant-General James Peake, the army's surgeon general, has sent a team of six to Iraq and two more doctors to Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany, where some of the troops were treated after being flown from Iraq, officials said on Friday. Army Medical Command spokeswoman Lyn Kukral said: "It is pneumonia. The question is: what is the cause?" "You've got a healthy population and a young population [of...

<p>The parents of an American soldier who died in Iraq after contracting a mysterious pneumonialike illness that ravaged his major organs are convinced that their son stumbled across deadly chemical weapons while clearing rubble from one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.</p>

<p>The Army is trying to figure out what is causing a rash of serious pneumonia cases, including two fatalities, among soldiers serving in Iraq.</p> <p>A six-person team of specialists was en route to Iraq Friday to investigate 14 cases of pneumonia serious enough that the soldiers had to be put on ventilators to breathe and evacuated from the region, the Army Surgeon General's office said Friday.</p>

LAKE OF THE OZARKS -- Seven more soldiers in Iraq have contracted the same puzzling illness that has killed two soldiers, including one from the lake area. The latest cases bring the number of affected troops to 19. All have been evacuated to the same Landstuhl, Germany, hospital where Spec. Josh Neusche, 20, of Montreal was treated before he died July 12. It is believed Neusche contracted the illness, first thought to be pneumonia, while conducting cleanup operations with the 203rd Engineer Battalion in Baghdad. "The Army Surgeon General confirmed that three or four of the soldier's in Josh's unit...

Mystery illness kills Missouri soldierJosh Neusche died Saturday; his family waits for answers.By Eric EckertNews-Leader Staff July 16, 2003   Montreal, Mo. &#8212; Seventeen-year-old Jacob Neusche spent Tuesday morning packing up his big brother's belongings &#8212; books, a high school letterman's jacket and a Class A uniform.  "That's what Josh will be buried in," the teenager said, referring to the uniform.   Missouri National Guard Spc. Josh Neusche, 20, died Saturday at the Homburg Hospital in Germany from a mysterious illness. A member of the 203rd Engineer Battalion, he is the only Missouri National Guardsman on the Department of Defense's...

TORONTO (AP)--The number of probable SARS cases in Canada's largest city could be 60 or more, a leading figure in Toronto's efforts to contain the disease said Thursday. Dr. Donald Low said health officials were likely to designate more patients as probable cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome when they apply a broader definition of the diagnosis to a new outbreak first noticed last week. Officials worry the World Health Organization could issue another warning against travel to the city, like one on April 23 that was lifted a week later. Dr. Colin D'Cunha, the Ontario commissioner of public health,...

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