# 994
Thus far, it's been a bad flu season in the southern hemisphere.
New Zealand has declared `Code Red' due to influenza induced staff shortages at hospitals, and in Australia, 4 children have now died of what was first thought to be complications of influenza, but now . . .
Killer bug baffles experts
By Nick Taylor
July 19, 2007 04:20pm
WA HEALTH experts are baffled by yesterday's death of a young child - the fourth to succumb to a mystery infection in two weeks.
They are calling in medical experts from around the world to try and uncover any link between the tragic deaths.
A two-year-old Gosnells boy was the latest victim. The other three were all aged under five.
The Health Department's director of communicable diseases, Dr Paul Van Buynder, said today:
"It's not clear what's causing the illness.
"At this point we are unable to say what the cause of death has been in these four children.
"There isn't anything specific to the organisms that have been found that would give us a clue to what's going on.''
The WA Health Department had a tele-conference with experts around Australia today in a bid to pinpoint the killer virus.
There has been no similar outbreak anywhere else in the country and further talks will be held with experts overseas.
"We are desperately trying to get to the bottom of what's causing these illnesses,'' Dr Van Buynder said.
"Unfortunately, at this point, it's not clear to anybody within the medical community as to what's happening.''
He said preliminary tests suggested only that the latest illness was very similar to the one that killed the other three children - but there was no direct link.
"Initial pathology tests have shown that the child did not have influenza-A like the other three,'' he said.
"At the moment there is no link between the four with regard to a common bacterial infection.
"There is no single bacterial infection that links the four cases.
"This child appears to have had a very similar illness to the first three, has had a very rapid course of illness, but other than that we have no other information at this point.
"The four deaths are linked only in that they have had a very similar cause of illness.
"We are unable to find a single organism which is the same in any of the children and the children themselves have had no contact that we are aware of.''
He said it was very unlikely that medical intervention would have saved the four children.
