# 5801
Nearly 4 months ago, in The Korean `Mystery’ Pneumonia, I wrote about confusing, incomplete, and sometimes contradictory reports regarding a number of pregnant women in a Seoul Hospital with a `mystery’ respiratory virus.
At the time, there were 8 pregnant women, and 1 man - who came from different hospitals and clinics across Korea – suffering from an unusually aggressive (and rapidly fulminating) form of Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) – a scaring and stiffening of lung tissue without a known cause that normally takes months or years to manifest.
For more background on this story, FluTrackers has maintained this extensive thread with more than 120 entries to date.
Although this disease was being referred to as a `mystery virus’ in the media, its exact etiology (viral, bacterial, fungal, or environmental) was unknown.
After some impressive epidemiological detective work, the KCDC (Korea Centers For Disease Control) believes they have found a link between the use of a specific type of sterilizing fluid used in home humidifiers and this illness.
While not yet able to establish a firm cause-and-effect relationship between exposure to fumes from this sterilizer and this respiratory disease, they have found that those who were exposed to it in their home humidifier were 47 times more likely to develop the condition than a control group.
The exact chemical used in this sterilizing solution was not specified by the KCDC. For now they are urging the public not to use chemical disinfectants in their home humidifiers, and to change the water daily and clean them with detergent instead.
The KCDC said that pregnant women were likely more susceptible to this lung damage because they spent more time at home resting, and because they tended to take deeper breaths.
A full report from the KCDC is expected in the coming months.
A couple of news items on this story include:
Mystery malady traced to fluid in humidifiers – Korea JoongAng Daily
