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Vorn Pov
Among the dead was Vorn Pov, whom
his father said was 12 years old. In Cambodia, it’s common to add a year when
counting ages. Vorn Pov died on June 23, about a week after he first became
sick. His father, Khuth Vorn, 53, lives in a wooden thatched roof house next
to lush green rice fields in Prey Veng province, southeast of Phnom Penh near
the border with Vietnam.
When Vorn Pov first got sick, Khuth
Vorn took him to a local clinic, where he stayed for three days. He was
transferred to a private clinic in Prey Veng provincial town for four days when
his condition worsened, after which he was taken to the Kantha Bopha hospital,
Khuth Vorn said. His son arrived at 5 p.m. and was pronounced dead four hours
later.
“The doctors said his lungs had burned,” Khuth Vorn said,
sitting shirtless at a stone table as half-a-dozen barefooted small children
played around him in dirt littered with plastic bags, empty soda bottles and
discarded cigarette packages. “My wife was sobbing. We felt helpless.”
Provincial and district officials visited him yesterday to find
out more details about his son’s illness, he said.
Iceberg
Effect
“If EV-71 is the explanation, what very likely
occurred is a massive outbreak of hand, mouth and foot disease, which might
not have hit the radar because it’s generally a mild disease and lasts for a few
days,” said Peiris.
Peiris explained that in epidemiology there
is what is called the iceberg effect: where only a small percentage of the
affected present as a serious disease. “What is different could be the host’s
ability to combat the disease,” he said.
Hand, foot and mouth
disease is a common infectious disease in infants and children, according to the
joint release. It is spread from person to person by direct contact with nose
or throat discharges, saliva, fluid from blisters, or the feces of the infected,
according to the release. http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2012/07...foot.html#more
