US Army Stumped by Pneumonia Among Mideast Troops

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.

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.The Army has ruled out the SARS coronavirus and a number of other pathogens as causes of the cluster of severe acute pneumonitis. It also does not believe that biochemical agents played a role in making the 18 men and one woman sick.”We don’t know the cause, but we’re aggressively pursuing that through laboratory tests,” said Col. Bruno Petrucelli, a doctor and epidemiologist in the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine in Maryland.”Clinically there is just no fit here with the bioagents,” Petrucelli added.He noted it was possible smoking contributed to the illnesses in the soldiers. Fifteen of the 19 patients, who were healthy before developing pneumonia, smoked cigarettes or cigars.All of the patients suffered shortness of breath and required the assistance of mechanical ventilators after the onset of illness. The majority also had markedly higher numbers of a certain type of white blood cell known as an eosinophil.Eosinophils are produced in the bone marrow and normally found in the bloodstream and the gut lining. They contain proteins that help the body fight infection from parasites, but they can damage the body when certain diseases are present.The 17 surviving soldiers have been placed on sick leave or returned to duty.The Army is urging health care providers in the United States to watch for unexplained cases of acute respiratory failure in troops returning from duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and nearby countries.(Source: Reuters, Thu September 11, 2003 06:34 PM ET, By Paul Simao)