Lisa Schnirring 
Staff Writer
Jul 9, 2012 (CIDRAP New) – Lab analysis in the mysterious recent
illnesses and deaths of dozens of Cambodian children pointed to enterovirus 71
(EV-71), a virus that causes hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) and can lead
to severe complications in some patients, the World Health Organization (WHO)
announced today.
Cambodia's health ministry is finalizing its review of all
suspected hospitalized cases, which included two additional cases, raising the
total to 59 infections, 52 of them fatal, according to the WHO. However,
hospital sources said the number of children with severe infections is somewhat
higher.
Dr. Beat Richner, founder and head of Kantha Bopha Children's
Hospitals, which has five facilities in Cambodia, said yesterday in a statement
that 66 children have been admitted to the hospitals with the same symptoms and
clinical findings, and only two patients have survived.
The WHO and local health officials are exploring other factors
that might be contributing to the serious and fatal complications in some of the
patients. The WHO said lab tests conducted by Cambodia's Pasteur Institute have
turned up other pathogens, including dengue virus and Streptococcus suis.
Tests have ruled out H5N1 and other influenza viruses, SARS (severe acute
respiratory syndrome), and Nipah virus.
The Pasteur Institute tested 24 samples, and EV-71 was found in 15
of them, according to a report today from the Phnom Penh Post.
Richner said the children suffered from encephalitis, with the
condition progressing to total destruction of lung alveoli during the last hours
of the children's lives. He said in the statement that he and his team wrote a
letter to the health ministry on Jun 20 describing the clinical picture of the
cases and suggested that the condition might be caused by an enterovirus
infection, intoxication from a medication given before hospitalization, or both.
He said all 64 of the children who died at Kantha Bopha hospitals had been
previously treated at outside private clinics.
The WHO, the Pasteur Institute, and the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), are assisting Cambodia's health ministry with the
outbreak investigation.
H.E. Mam BunHeng, the country's health minister..
