２１日に紹介した、ペルー沖の中国船で中国人船員がナゾの死を遂げた事件http://blog.goo.ne.jp/tabibito12/d/20080421 の続報です。
当初騒がれかけた、”中国からもってきた鳥インフルエンザ”説は否定されました。でも、もっと怖いかもしれないことが・・・
亡くなった２名を病理解剖したところ「アデノウイルスによる肺炎」との結果がでました。
アデノウイルス。ごくありふれたカゼのウイルスです。このアデノウイルスが突然変異して致死性をもつようになったとのこと。
つまり、「ごくありふれたカゼのウイルス
」が突然変異して殺人ウイルスになったということは、それこそどこにでも転がっているもので死んでしまうかもしれない
。新型インフルエンザよりさらに震撼させられる話です。
ペルーでは、この中国漁船からのSOSに応じて、３０人の警備隊員や医療スタッフが防護処置をせず乗船しました。この３０人も、家族との接触を禁じられ検疫対象になっています。
この中国漁船は昨年８月１９日！出港以来、まったく上陸をしていない。この非人間的環境ゆえ免疫能低下がひとつの原因ではないかといわれていますが、もちろん、これだけで説明つくわけではなくナゾと不気味さがつのるばかりです。
ソースは４月２３日付La Republica↓
http://www.larepublica.com.pe/component/option,com_contentant/task,view/id,215744/Itemid,0/
ですが、スペイン語です。この英語訳がProMedに載っており、↓に貼り付けます。
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:46:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promed.isid.harvard.edu>
Subject: PRO/EDR> Undiagnosed deaths, Chinese fishermen - Peru(02): adenovirus susp.
UNDIAGNOSED DEATHS, CHINESE FISHERMEN - PERU (02): (CALLAO), ADENOVIRUS SUSPECTED
***********************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases <http://www.isid.org>
Dare: Sun 20 Apr 2008
Source: La Republica Online, Peru [in Spanish, trans. & summ. Mod.JW, edited] <http://www.larepublica.com.pe/component/option,com_contentant/task,view/id,215744/Itemid,0/>
Deadly virus
- ------------
Medical examinations have determined that 8 other Chinese sailors have the deadly virus, but have not developed any illness. The cook, aged 40, and a crewmember of the vessel, aged 38, died on 9 Apr 2008, after suffering high fevers for hours. No medication was able to stop the progression of the disease.
Experts of the Forensic Medicine Institute of Public Prosecutions [IML] have determined that the cause of death was an adenovirus that has become extremely deadly.
Adenoviruses are spread by physical contact or through the air and are one of the causes of the common flu, but were not considered fatal. At least, not so far.
The virus that causes severe acute respiratory [syndrome], an atypical pneumonia that first appeared in November 2002 in Guangdong Province, China, has been ruled out.
The head of the IML, Luis Bromley Coloma, indicated that "we are facing an adenovirus that has mutated and become deadly, but it is still unknown what caused the mutation and how fast it can spread", which is why an Epidemiological Alert has been declared.
The autopsy performed on the 2 victims hurled death, multiorgan edema in the brain, lungs, heart, liver, pancreas, and kidneys, and microhemorrhages in all organs. Toxicological, biological, and pathological tests performed revealed the presence of the mutated adenovirus.
Now, health authorities are working to establish where and what generated the mutation to find a cure or a way to contain it.
"Chan An 168" is a squid and shrimp fishing vessel that sailed from the port of Yautay, China, on 19 Aug 2007 with 23 people on board.
Since then they have not had contact with dry land. On 13 Dec 2007 it delivered its catch to another boat and received 2 other crewmembers.
The same happened on 15 Mar 2008.
On 9 Apr 2008, the port captaincy of Callao received a distress call from the captain of the "Chan An". That morning 2 Chinese crewmembers
- -- the cook and a fisherman -- had died. The only symptom was a high fever lasting from 2-5 hours; none of the medicines on board helped.
Unfortunately, the Navy and International Maritime Health personnel boarded the Chinese ship to provide the care they needed, without taking the precautions needed to avoid contagion, hence it has been decided to quarantine them. The disease can manifest itself in 14 days to 3 months.
Specialists from the IML, and epidemiologists from the Ministry of Defense, the Navy, and the Ministry of Health, met yesterday 19 Apr 2008] to assess the results of the biological and pathological examinations in order to take the necessary preventive measures to avoid spread of the virus.
"The autopsies carried out indicate that the 2 Chinese crewmembers died from pneumonia resulting from an adenovirus, a cause of the flu that is not usually fatal. What happened in this case is that the virus has mutated and become deadly, and we are on an epidemiological alert,'' the head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Luis Bromley, said yesterday [19 Apr 2008].
The specialist added that this outbreak has 2 characteristics: the victims are people with weakened immune systems, having been almost a year at sea, isolated and living in subhuman conditions. The other factor is still being studied -- still unknown are the cause that led to the mutation and how to fight it.
"The entire crew has been evaluated and it has been found that 8 crewmembers are infected with the mutated adenovirus and are under observation; they can not be treated, because we do not know how to fight this virus," stressed Bromley.
It has been arranged for 30 Peruvian people who have been to the ship to provide help and have come into contact with patients remain under epidemiological surveillance, isolated, and without contact with their families until the deadly disease has been ruled out. In these cases ''security measures may sound extreme, but prevention is better than later to have to bear the consequences if nothing was done,"
asserted emphatically the head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
[Byline: Cesar Romero, Ana Veliz]
- --
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[The identification of a 'mutated' adenovirus as the suspected cause of the deaths of members of the crew of a Chinese fishing vessel anchored off Callao is surprising. Adenoviruses are ubiquitous viruses that can be isolated from both sick and healthy individuals.
Antibodies can be detected in virtually all humans, indicative of infection early in childhood and possible life-long persistence in adenoid and lung tissue. Morbidity and mortality associated with adenovirus infection are low, but adenovirus-associated respiratory and gastrointestinal disease can be serious especially in immunologically compromised patients.
There are at east 170 serotypes of adenoviruses, about 50 of which have been isolated from human sources. The designation 'mutant' or 'mutated' adenovirus is meaningful only in the sense that the adenovirus recovered from the affected individuals is associated with signs and symptoms not usually encountered in adenovirus infections.
An adenovirus, however, cannot be excluded as the potential etiologic agent, particularly as the description of living conditions on board the fishing vessel suggest that the resistance of the crew to any infectious agent may have been very low. Information of the condition of the other crewmembers and those in quarantine will be relevant in confirming the diagnosis. - Mod.CP]
The interactive HealthMap of Peru can be accessed at <http://healthmap.org/promed?v=-9.2,-75.9,5>.
Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area. - Mod.CP
Given the long time since the vessel left China, the disease was mostb likely introduced by one of the new crew members who went aboard in March 2008 (we are not told whether the fatal cases were those same 2). The adenovirus type is not stated, but the ProMED reader who contributed this report has suggested that it could be type 14, which has a 20 percent mortality rate -- see ProMED post Adenovirus 14-associated pneumonia - USA (OR) 20071010.3334. I quote Mod CP's comment on that report: "Human adenovirus 14 has not previously been regularly associated with human respiratory disease. It is perhaps too soon to designate human adenovirus 14-associated pneumonia as an emerging disease rather than perhaps a co-factor in an unusual disease situation." Given the prevalence of adenovirus antibody in the general population, could the finding of the virus in the fatal cases be merely a co-factor, or even a coincidence, with the actual etiology of the fatal cases being some other micro-organism? - Mod.JW]
[see also:
Undiagnosed deaths, Chinese fishermen - Peru (Callao) 20080420.1408
2007
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