7 more cases of mystery illness (Soldiers Iraq - 2 Dead)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.lakesunleader.com/display/inn_news/news1.txt

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 are among those who got sick," Sen. Ike Skelton told the Lake Sun Tuesday. "I know Josh was stationed in Baghdad when he got sick but I still do not know what unit the second soldier (who died of the mysterious illness) was in, what his job was or where he was working when he became ill."

--snip--

Neusche's family could not afford to make the trip to Germany and was told he was in a coma, dying of a flu-like ailment.

Fellow soldiers chipped in for airfare and Skelton expedited their passports and paperwork to get them to Germany in time.

When Neusche's parents arrived in Germany on July 9, the illness had already begun ravaging his muscles, liver and kidneys. Neusche died in an ambulance on the way to another hospital for dialysis.

[Jacobin]

1. Sad

Wonder what that's all about?

[leesa]

6. It could well be heavy metal poisoning from depleted uranium

if not some sort of indigenous virus. Of course the Crime Family will try to spin it as a WMD attack by Saddam.

[Rose Siding]

2. Amazing, considering the Dutch are expecting

100 cases out of their 700 troops. So an equivalent % of American troops would be about 25,000 cases of this "flu like disease".

http://www.expatica.com/index.asp?pad=2,18,&item_id=33114

[Cha]

3. Poor Guy!

This is bush's fault.

[happyslug]

4. Saddam has launch his Biological Agents......

or more likly typhoid and/or Cholera do to the Failure of the US to restore the water and sewerage systems in Iraq.

[Paschall]

15. Neither typhoid or cholera produce pneumonia-like symptoms

They're intestinal complaints that primarily produce diarrhoea and fluid loss. We know how to treat both pretty effectively. (And I think our soldiers would normally have been vaccinated against typhoid and cholera before shipping out to Iraq.)

It would be interesting to hear from a microbiologist or pathologist on this. How does this illness compare to SARS?

[jamesinca]

21. it sounds like he became septic after a respiratory infection

Pseudomonis, Staph aureas, E.coli, and some Clostridiums will cause this. He could have eaten some bad food also, E.coli. Once he became septic it progressed to Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS). One can also go into shock, then MODS from prolonged hypotension. Dehydration will cause you to be hypotensive. He would have become confused first. Or that is usually the first sign is a change in mental status. Do you remember back when this war first started there was a soldier in Kuwait that threw the grenade into the tents of the CO and other officers? Fellow soldiers said he had been acting strange. It was reported that he was a Muslim and left at that! Confusion, that is the first sign. A bad lot of food rations to the troops, dehydration from the heat, the stress breaking down the immune system leaving the soldiers vulnerable to infections. It may be something passed on by sand flies that the locals have immunity to. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. But it does sound bacterial in nature.

[starroute]

27. Something the locals have immunity to?

I'm interested that you suggest this possibility, because the same thing occurred to me last night.

There's a long history of plagues changing the course of wars, from the epidemic that rolled back an Assyrian attack on ancient Israel to the wave of syphillis (in its early, most virulent form) that decimated a French army in Italy in the early 1500's.

There's also a long history of people from the Eurasian landmass bringing novel diseases to more isolated and disease-free areas and nearly wiping out the locals -- as happened to the Maori and the Native Americans.

A book which has been on my to-read list for a while, "Guns, Germs and Steel," apparently suggests that it was almost inevitable for Eurasians to come to dominate the rest of the world because of their more highly-developed immunity to disease. It would be interesting and ironic if it turns out that because of this history, we Americans are acting out of a belief in our god-given right to world domination which we no longer have the natural immunity to sustain.

[ReadTomPaine]

31. Re: 'Guns, Germs and Steel' ...

Don't put it off any longer- it's one of the best books I've read in years.

[hippiechick]

39. But a Halliburton Subsidiary is supplying their food .....

... and we know a patriotic and conscientous company like Halliburton would never endanger the health of our fighting men and women by sending them substandard food, or preparing it in substandard conditions, just to increase their bottom line !!!!

{/sarcasm}


:hippie:

[Snow]

34. Ummm, actually typhoid can and will

produce symptoms that look almost indistinguishable from pneumonia....I've seen it, diagnosed, and (major embarassment) had it myself! Even in spite of having been vaccinated...
Typhoid, by the way (epidemiologic trivia alert) was oneof the alternate diagnoses under consideration in the 1977 Legionnaire's Disease outbreak.

[Must_B_Free]

5. Depleted Uranium?

not enough info to speculate.

Ah well, the autism - vaccination tie that used to vbe a suspicion is becoming more and more proven each day.

[happyslug]

7. Why go with DU?

When Typhoid and Cholera are not only more likly, but given both are caused by US military INCOMPETENCE (i.e. failing to repair the water and seweage systems) just as likly to be covered up by the US Military,

[Paschall]

18. See my post above

There are vaccines for both typhoid and cholera, which I'm sure were administered to our troops. Also, you don't think they're allowed to drink the local water, do you? Water-borne infections are easy to avoid when you have an unlimited supply of US bottled water at your disposal.

[NYC]

20. They don't have unlimited bottled water.

Their water supply is limited to two 2-liter bottles per day for drinking and washing.

I read over a week ago that a U.S. soldier complained about the smell of disinfectant in the drinking water that he bought from an Iraqi sidewalk vendor.

[GreenArrow]

25. maybe they are drinking local water

that has been stored in containers taken from the looted tailufah (sp?) nuclear facility.

[IndianaGreen]

37. No, the US is importing bottled water from Turkey

there was an article about that posted in DU a week ago. The GIs refuse to drink water from the water point folks, the ones that can distill potable water from the most foul water source, preferring instead the easy to carry water bottles that we use here in America.

The Pentagon has a contract with multiple bottled water sources in Turkey.

Whatever the source of the mystery illness is not in the water.

ABC News confirmed today what Keith Olbermann said on his MSNBC show last night, the GIs that are sick come from different units deployed in different parts of Iraq.

[Snow]

41. Vaccines are nowhere near 100% effective

for either of those disaease. If you get a large dose of bugs, and are stressed for some reason...(pause while we consider reasons those guys migbht be stresed))...then you cans still get the bug.

[happyslug]

8. Here are the CDC comments on Typhid and Cholera

What are the signs and symptoms of typhoid fever?

Persons with typhoid fever usually have a sustained fever as high as 103̊ to 104̊ F (39̊ to 40̊ C). They may also feel weak, or have stomach pains, headache, or loss of appetite. In some cases, patients have a rash of flat, rose-colored spots. The only way to know for sure if an illness is typhoid fever is to have samples of stool or blood tested for the presence of S. Typhi.


http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/typhoidfever_g.htm

Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but sometimes it can be severe. Approximately one in 20 infected persons has severe disease characterized by profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramps. In these persons, rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within hours.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/cholera_g.htm

[montana_hazeleyes]

9. All this money is being spent on this invasion,

Jessica gets all this special treatment, but fellow soldiers had to chip in for airfare so the parents could see their dying boy before it was too late???!!!!

[DemoTex]

14. It's a fucked-up war, montana_hazeleyes. From the get-go.

This is why I was in the streets. As a veteran of the Vietnam bullshit, I knew - more or less - it would come down this way. It was ill-fated once Bu$h touched it with his money-grubbing hands. Ask, sometimes, about George H.W. Bu$h - CIA Director in 1975/76 - and the plight of the POW/MIA's in Laos. Things will get real quiet, real quick. Bu$h hands are stained, from way back, with the blood of our soldiers. From way back. Come to the wall in DC and I will point to a few I knew. Bu$h. Death.

[montana_hazeleyes]

17. My sweet brother,two years younger than I,

could have ended up on that wall. He came home alive,but messed up from what he saw and did.I haven't seen him for years. Maybe you could help me on this. Do you think I could find him through the VA? I don't know his social security number but I have enough infomation and my birth certificate to prove I'm his sister. Our parents are long gone and I have no contact with my sister.Last I spoke to her though she hadn't heard from him in years either.I admit I'm kind of afraid that he may have died or does not want to be found.But I want to find him. Thanks if you can give me advice on this.

[starroute]

28. Online resources

If he has died, his name would be in the Social Security Death Index.
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

If you check and he isn't there, he must be alive.

Finding people is one of the things the Net is best at, and veterans seem to be particularly active in trying to track down those who served with them. You might try doing a search on your brother's name and "Vietnam" and see what comes up. If you know what unit he was in, that would also be worth searching on. Or you might just enter search terms like "Vietnam" "veterans" "reunions" and see if you can come up with sites that offer the sort of advice you need.

Good luck -- I hope you can find him.

[montana_hazeleyes]

29. Thank you so much for help starroute,

I did check in the social security death index and thank goodness he is not there. That gave me hope. I will try the other things you suggested. Thank you again.

[Paschall]

19. DemoTex, after reading your post...

...and reading about the "terror futures market" organized by Wolfowitz, I think I'm going to start calling this the Thanatos Administration.

[saigon68]

23. YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT LAOS

It was disgusting how Ford, Kissinger et al. pulled the plug on that unholy mess. Bush I, as director of the CIA went along too. There are numerous Vet/POW sites on the web, that outline this whole sordid affair. But outside of a few angry vets (like me), no one cares.

[Nambe]

10. This was in a Deutschland paper two weeks ago.

They (Deutch Doctors) suspected radiation sickness.

[seventhson]

40. That is consistent with radiation illness which damages the immune system

see radiation.org

[starroute]

11. Story at iraqwar.ru

http://www.iraqwar.ru/?userlang=en

Linking directly to the article doesn't work, because of the coding to set the language to English. But it's currently on the main page under the heading, "Military Families Speak Out."

My son called me this morning early from Baghdad. The connection was quite poor. He told me he is sick -- once again he's ill. This time it's a respiratory illness, a *cold.* I told him to go to the doctor. And he said he would. But our call was cut short when we lost the connection. According to (this article from the Springfield News-Leader,) other soldiers in Baghdad are suffering respiratory problems. And Keane says there are no investigations yet. My son's breathing sounded labored and he sounded weak. I emailed the commander's wife with the article and my concerns. Unlike the previous commander who led them in the invasion, the new one seems to be a flag-waving Bushie; and his wife makes no effort to communicate when contacted. The previous commander's wife relayed my concerns, and they were dealt with promptly by Cmdr XXXXX.

[JackDragna]

12. I know of another disease that soldiers have been getting..

..lead poisoning. Time to get them the hell out of there.

[webtrainer]

13. good article on DU here

http://www.altpressonline.com/article.php?sid=11&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

|--------------------
Soldiers returning from the Persian Gulf are suffering the ill effects of depleted uranium (DU) munitions exposure, said former U.S. Army Reserve Major Douglas Rokke on July 21 at the Buffalo-Erie County Historical Society. "We've had kids dying of respiratory problems in the last few days. One was from my hometown, 20 years old."
--------------------|

[kainah]

16. Whatever is causing it

it sounds as though it really ravages the internal organs. That will make it very, very deadly.

[RamboLiberal]

33. MSNBC Countdown made this the lead story tonight

14 soldiers ill from a Missouri Reserve or NG Engineering Unit (sorry forgot which). In story they said Army Surgeon is frantic to find the cause and that it was strange it was a combination of illnesses attacking both the lungs like pneoumonia and then wasting the other organs.

[Spentastic]

22. Disgrace

"Neusche's family could not afford to make the trip to Germany and was told he was in a coma, dying of a flu-like ailment. "

It's costing billions!

[libtexan]

24. My heart

really goes out to these poor guys and their families. I've spoken with several aquaintances who have
friends getting ready to be shipped out over there, and they are very concerned.

[Fovea]

26. It sounds a fair amount like Spanish Flu

The cause of 50 Million deaths world wide in 1919-20.
A Brit just recently dug up a town in Alaska's cemetary to find samples.

Hmmm.

[Tracer]

30. SARS?

eom

[dArKeR]

38. Bush and Rumsfeld will lie if it is SARS because if so, the war is over

and they can't use up the Military Industrial Complex inventories which will piss off the Power Elite.

It's really the end of the war if it is SARS, no question! No soldier will fight. All military families will take to the streets and march to D.C. for ALL troops out. But the troops won't come home because of the contagiousness. They will be sent to some base in Kuwait then after quarantine will come home.

This is my Bush Future's Market prediction.

[young_at_heart]

32. CBS talked about many injured GI's........it's not on most news!

Hundreds of soldiers have been seriously injured but it's gone unreported and their families aren't told the extent of the injuries. This is one hellacious mess!

[Clyde39]

42. I saw that too....VERY under-reported

Not only is the mystery illness being kept quiet but the many hundreds of badly injured soldiers are not making any headlines or newscasts.

[dArKeR]

35. It's just hit the mainstream web 2 days after rmpalmer's post

http://www.msnbc.com/news/947121.asp?0cv=CB10

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/01/iraq/main566292.shtml

It sounds like SARS even though they say it isn't. Wow, SARS spreads quickly. They might be lying to avoid troop panic.

I was in Hong Kong during part of the spread. It's really scary and EVERYONE is freaked out because there's nothing you can really do and you can't see it coming.

http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/

[Anti Fascist]

36. Projectile vomit ... oh boy

I heard about this from the horses mouth. Sean (a.k.a Moja_Vera) talked about a nasty virus that is spreading among the troops. It started in the soutern reaches of Iraq and making its way around. Check out his blog ... a well reasoned soldier doing his duty but not so sure we should be there.

http://turningtables.blogspot.com/

[Mari333]

43. My son just went to his last 2 weeks of Natl Guard training

He gets out in November...before he left, I told him

DONT SIGN ANYTHING, DONT VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING

He said "I wont...my sarge told me he just got back from the ME, and its worse then anything he has ever seen...dont worry Mom, Im OUT in November and Im never signing up again."

Poor kids over there, god help the parents who are mad with Grief.

[expatriot]

44. your son is one smart guy...

and kudos to his sarge for tellin' it like it is... it's just that i don't know what the Pentagon is gonna do with this retention problem they are gonna increasingly have with, especially with the NG and the Reserves. Reinstating the Draft would be political suicide... and increasing the pay would be too because of the deficits it would cause. What's a W. to do?