Health officials probe 22 mystery deaths in Jakarta

[AlaskaDenise]

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detail...8111759&irec=0


JAKARTA (AP): Indonesian health officials are investigating the deaths of 22 people from an unidentified illness characterized by high fever over a two-month period in the capital Jakarta.

Samples from the patients - all of whom died days after being admitted to St. Carolus hospital - have been sent to the U.S.Naval Medical Research Unit 2 in Jakarta, but the cause of death remained a mystery, said Nyoman Kandun, a senior health ministry official.

"We have not been able to conclude if this is or is not a new emerging disease," Nyoman told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "But after experiencing both bird flu and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) we do not want to take any chances."

Samples were also sent to the U.S.-based Centers for DiseaseControl, another health official said on condition he not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Tests there were also inconclusive.

Nyoman said the patients may have been poisoned, but for the time being the cause of death was listed as from a "high fever of unknown origin."

Most of the victims were over 40 and from middle-class residential areas near St. Carolus in central Jakarta. The hospital started reporting the deaths in October and the last death was reported on Nov. 27, he said.

Surveillance teams have visited the homes of the patients but found no additional cases and investigators also concluded that they did not get their infections from fellow patients at the hospital, Kandun said.

There are two other hospitals in the neighborhood, but they have not reported similar mysterious deaths, he said. (**)

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[Gert van der Hoek]

machine translated:

The cause of the Mysterious Death 22 patients RS Carolus were not yet known

Jakarta,
The department of the Health up to now does not yet know the mysterious illness that for the last two months caused the death 22 patients in the Hospital St. Carolus, Jakarta.

"We have carried out routine investigation towards the possibility of various potential infectious diseases the plague." All of them the negative.

It did not yet have the other conclusion, said Director General Pengendalian of the Illness and Sanitation of the I Nyoman Kandun Health of the Department's Environment to Antara, in Jakarta, on Friday.

He proposed that was related the report on a national newspaper of The The Jakarta Post concerning the mysterious illness incident that caused the death 22 casualties that all of them were more than 40 years old and live in close to the hospital.

The possibility of the occurrence of the infection nosokomial (the infection that was received or emerged when the patient was treated in the house be sick-red) then, said he, has been investigated but results of the negative.

He explained also that the laboratory inspection of the sample of the mysterious illness patient who in part was marked by the sign of the high fever still could not be used to know the cause of the death of these patients.

It was further that Kandun explained that in fact the case of the illness with the hot sign high that kind in fact also often was found in the other hospital.

"But why we were attracted by the case this time?", because of the increase in the real case for the last two month happening.

We worried this the potential illness the plague, was like this Kandun.
(Ant)

http://www.analisadaily.com/

[Gert van der Hoek]

Health officials tightlipped over spate of deaths at city hospital

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

December 31, 2006

The Ministry of Health is continuing its investigation into the spate of deaths of 22 patients at Central Jakarta's St. Carolus Hospital, while health officials remain tightlipped over a possible disease outbreak.

"We are keeping samples for further tests of communicable diseases that never occur in the country. Those tests required specific regimes that we do not have at the moment," ministry laboratory researcher Syahrial Harun said Friday.

The ministry started investigating the cases in October when the St. Carolus Hospital reported a significant increase of deaths from its monthly average of 60. The latest death was reported on Nov. 27.

Hospital officials would not comment on the development, saying they had handed over the investigation to ministry officials.

The ministry has previously declared the deaths were a statistical anomaly after an earlier investigation showed no indications of a disease outbreak.

Previous tests had eliminated known communicable diseases such as severe acute respiratory disease and avian influenza but had been unable to determine the cause of the patients' deaths.

Health ministry director general for disease control and environmental health I Nyoman Kandun earlier said another investigation would only proceed if a series of new deaths were reported.

Samples from the mostly over 40-year-old male patients showed a possibility of bacterial infection.

Most of the patients lived in areas nearby the hospital. Some were reported to have suffered from a respiratory illness.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detail...230.A07&irec=6

[Theresa42]

toggletext-ed from Indonesian:

Carolus did not yet know the Cause of the Death 20 patients
Senin, 08 Januari 2007 | 13:40 WIB

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta: The management of the Saint Carolus Hospital did not yet know the cause of the death 20 Jakarta residents who contracted the high fever in November last year. "We did not yet know results of the Department of Health," said Endang Suryatno this hospital Spokesperson to the Time today.

According to Endang, the sign of the public of all the patients was feverish that was very high was accompanied by coughs. The patient generally only could be treated one to two day. The team of the doctor did not yet examine the patient comprehensively.

"This phenomenon rarely happened in this hospital," said Endang. Therefore, this case was at once reported to the Department of the Health. But Endang admitted to not yet getting results of the evaluation that was carried out by the Department of the health.

The hospital side, said Endang, suspected all the patients of contracting the sign that resembled bird flu (Avian influenza). If true then was worried by this virus will develop more far. "When being treated, they were united with the other patient, in the normal room," said Endang.

http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/ja...-90805,id.html

[4-ABBA]

Can't help but wondering: It seems that the W.H.O. would have / should have been involved in this investigation?

[MHSC]

Mystery infection that killed 20 in Indonesia still unidentified

12/01/2007 14:22 JAKARTA, January 12 (RIA Novosti) - A mysterious infectious disease that killed over 20 people in Indonesia in the last few months of 2006 remains unidentified, a health official said Wednesday.
A dramatic rise in the number of deaths at St. Carolus Hospital in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, in October and November was caused by an unknown disease characterized by a high fever, which usually led to the patient's death within three days of its onset.
"In some instances - not always - respiratory organs were affected," I Nyoman Kandun, head of the health ministry's communicable diseases control center, said in an interview.
The latest case was registered November 27, but until now the outbreak has not raised concerns about the emergence of a new, potentially lethal infection similar to last year's avian flu epidemic, which killed more people in Indonesia than in any other country of the Asian-Pacific region.
Kandun said health experts checked the hospital and patients' homes, and ruled out all possible widespread viruses, such as AIDS, avian and human flu, SARS, dengue fever, Ebola fever and others.
Blood samples taken from those affected have been sent for tests to the U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), headquartered in Atlanta, GA.
The official said that although the outbreak had been contained and had not turned into an epidemic, there was no guarantee that it would not recur.
He said ministry officials were keeping the St. Carolus clinic under close scrutiny and were trying to identify the pathogen involved. Other hospitals in Jakarta have enhanced preventive measures.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070112/58962628.html