"Mystery Fever Claims a Life"

In Gandinagar, medical authorities have been faced by an imminent and, in one case, fatal predicament.  There have, as of late, been multiple cases of hemorrhagic fevers, whose causes are still unknown. The first case was recorded on Dec 29th when a 30-year old woman, exhibiting signs of hemorrhagic fever, was admitted into Shalby hospital. 


The chief concerns noted were a "high fever, abdominal pain, and severe vomiting." As we learned in the clinical diagnosis portion of our lecture, these symptoms often point to viral diseases such as dengue fever and yellow fever.  Though the patient was treated with medication (unfortunately, the type of medication was not published), her condition continued to deteriorate, with rapidly declining blood and platelet counts (dehydration from bleeding and vomiting did not concentrate the cell counts here). The patient died of internal hemorrhaging and systemic organ failure, following a very similar progression of viral of hemorrhagic fever syndrome witnessed in yellow fever (where the patient suffers from bleeding diathesis and organ/kidney failure). There are currently two additional cases that exhibit similar symptoms. The two patients were both relayed to the intensive care units, and are being monitored for known infectious diseases. 


Since both additional cases of the unidentified disease occurred in people who were in close contact with the original case (her husband and nurse), the disease has been declared quite contagious. Unfortunately,  "test reports have not come positive for bacterial infection, dengue or other known infections, it is important to know exactly what we are dealing with and also its spread, whether it is through air, mosquito or other means." I would be interested to see exactly what tests were performed in attempt to identify the cause of disease. A urinalysis might help reveal whether the kidneys leaked/ measure the amount of ectopic protein. Furthermore, an analysis of neutrophil and lymphocyte concentrations might help identify whether the cause is a bacterium or a virus.  The identification of the cause of disease is an extremely interesting and crucial process. I'm interested to find out the cause of the disease.


Alysha 

Read more: Mystery fever claims a life - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Mystery-fever-claims-a-life/articleshow/7308549.cms#ixzz1BSmFDl1E