Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 11, 1993 TAG: 9306110212
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium
The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that it could take another month to prove the suspected virus causes the ailment and to determine which rodent carries it.
The agency also opened a national hot line Thursday with information about the disease.
"We are very concerned about the possible ongoing transmission," said Dr. James Hughes, director of the agency's Center for Infectious Diseases.
The disease surfaced this spring among young, healthy people in the Southwest, mostly Navajos. Some died within hours. Not all the cases have been on or near the Navajo Reservation, which covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
The CDC had counted 25 cases by Thursday afternoon - 17 in New Mexico, five in Arizona, two in Colorado and one in Utah. It was investigating 13 deaths suspected of being caused by the illness - eight in New Mexico, four in Arizona and one in Colorado.
Officials in New Mexico reported one additional case Thursday, and Utah has reported one death. CDC spokesman Bob Howard said late Thursday the agency had added one case and a death to its totals, but he had no details and could not verify those were the same cases.
Infected were 14 Indians, 10 whites and one Hispanic.
The latest death tentatively linked to the outbreak was that of a 22-year-old Indian woman in New Mexico who died Wednesday.
CDC officials were combing through other cases with similar symptoms: respiratory distress, swollen lungs, low oxygen levels and a high white blood cell count.
"It is not abating," said Dr. Norton Kalishman of the New Mexico Health Department.
Doctors suspect a new type of hantavirus, a virus carried by rodents, is causing the flu-like illness.
The first solid evidence: Tests that show at least six patients already had developed antibodies against four different hantavirus types, Hughes said.
Most hantavirus is found in Asia; none has ever caused an outbreak in the Western Hemisphere. It typically kills with kidney failure, not respiratory failure. No U.S. victim has had kidney failure.
The clustering of all known hantavirus types in the Southwest patients also indicates a brand new type at work, Hughes said.
The CDC has begun lab tests to isolate the suspect virus from the blood or urine of rodents - tests that would prove it is the cause of the outbreak and specify which animal is its carrier.
The CDC has shipped an unlicensed drug, ribavirin, to doctors because one study showed it might help if administered early.
The CDC's national hot line is 1-800-532-9929.
by CNB