Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501230086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FISHERSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
``There hasn't been what I would call a panic,'' said Dr. Donald Fowler, chief medical officer at Augusta Medical Center in Fishersville, where five of the bacteria's eight reported cases were treated. ``But I've talked to people in the emergency room who say they've been pretty busy.''
State health officials said Friday that the eight victims of a deadly strain of the streptococcus bacteria ranged in age from 28 to 83 and were from Augusta, Rockbridge and Rockingham counties.
Fowler said no additional cases were diagnosed Saturday, and the hospital has no plans to bring in additional staff.
``We've seen more patients for checkups,'' he said. ``It's going to scare people and they will come out, but that's fine. Most of the people coming in have a sore throat or some form of the flu.''
Fowler said the hospital plans to be ``a little more aggressive than usual. We'll culture more freely and we'll freely admit people.''
Hospital officials have met with doctors and given them a quick mini-course on the disease. They've handed out a three-page summary of symptoms and how to treat the illness. Those forms also are posted in all wards.
The three survivors include Phyllis Parker, whose voice was still weak Saturday as she sat up in her hospital bed at University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville and recounted a three-week battle with the bacteria.
The worst part, she said, was when doctors considered exploratory surgery to see if the bacteria was destroying the muscle and fat above her right breast, which had turned a deep red color.
``It was kind of a scary time,'' said Parker, a 47-year-old high school teacher from Lexington who keeps in shape with yoga and a good diet. Her immune system and a steady dose of antibiotics fought off the infection, and the swelling and inflammation went down.
``My mother went into the hospital with a stroke the day I went into the hospital,'' she said. ``If it had been her with this disease, she probably wouldn't have made it.''
The Virginia Department of Health said it is investigating the outbreak of the contagious bacterial illness because of the high number of reported cases in such a short time. Normally, a region with the population of the Shenandoah Valley would have nine cases of the life-threatening infection in 12 months.
Many people carry the germ without any symptoms. The most common disease caused by streptococcus is strep throat, which usually is treated successfully with penicillin. The virus is spread by direct contact, discharges from the nose and throat and by contaminated food.
The first to arrive at Augusta Medical Center were an elderly couple in their 80s who both were in the late stages of the infection. Fowler said the wife had become ill first and her husband tried to treat her at home. Both were admitted and given a high dosage of penicillin but died within 24 hours.
Another elderly man was treated at Augusta, as were a 30-year-old woman who had been suffering from kidney failure and a man ``in relatively good condition,'' Fowler said. Two people were transferred to the University of Virginia hospital, and one of them died.
Suzanne Jenkins, an assistant state epidemiologist, said at least two of the five people who died had the form of bacteria that destroys tissue at a rapid rate. Two had the form that infects the blood and one died of fluids in the abdomen. Of the three hospitalized, two had the form that infects the skin and one apparently had the form that causes toxic shock.
by CNB