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Marine Corps Officials Investigating Sudden Death of Recruit

Aired December 17, 2002 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to unravel a medical mystery. Marine Corps officials are investigating the sudden death of a recruit in San Diego, and they're trying to determine whether he died from a bacterial outbreak that is infecting others at the facility.
Our Brian Cabell has details from Southern California.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest figures we have here from the Marine Corps recruit depot in San Diego are 21 recruits now hospitalized, one of them in critical condition with streptococcus a infection. In the last 24 hours, a couple dozen have been released from the hospital. About 10 more have been admitted, so the problem is ongoing.

Of course the problem -- the alarm was raised on Sunday when one recruit, 18-year-old was Miguel Zavala was admitted with a rash on his ankle. About thee hours after he was admitted, he died. So as a result now, 4,000 recruits and their instructors, all of them here at the base, have been given inoculations. They've also had throat swabs. The result of those swabs will be known tomorrow.

As a precaution, all major physical activity here has been curtailed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. JANE HULY, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We're not going to do any for 72 hours only. We're not going to do any swim qualifications. We're not going to run any obstacle courses. We're not going to do any martial arts training. And we're not going to do any PT. Just going out and running.

This will be filled in by added classroom instruction, safety classes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: Now, there have been two other deaths over the last three weeks, but they don't believe those were related to the infection. One of them died of cardiac arrest, another with fluid on his lungs. Again, it's not believed those are related to the current problem we're now facing, and it's believed, officials saying, that the problem is now under control.

I'm Brian Cabell, CNN in San Diego.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR; We want to find out some more about the type of bacterial outbreak that the Marines are coping with and with now, and our medical correspondent Rea Blakey joins us live from Washington to shed some more light on that.

Rea, good morning.

This is a strange story to see how this spread throughout this young man's body so quickly within a matter of hours. But how is it spread overall through a population?

REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's Caused by close contact, Leon, and oftentimes with the mucous membranes or a wound area in particular.

Let me give you a little more background on the bacterium itself. It's often found in the throat and on the skin. Quite commonly, many people carry it and have no symptoms of illness whatsoever.

In fact, most cases of GAS -- that's group a streptococcus (ph) infections, are relatively mild, life strep throat, but on rare occasion, it can cause other life-threatening illnesses.

Now in its milder form, some of the symptoms include fever, severe pain and swelling, as well as redness at the site. But in the least common forms of this severe illness, that variety can lead to streptococcus (ph) toxic shock syndrome. Now, that's not exactly the same as the toxic shock syndrome that we frequently hear about associated with tampon usage, but more than half the patients who have that variety, the toxic shock syndrome, will die. And in those cases, those symptoms include fever, dizziness, confusion and often a flat red rash over a large part of the body.

The other most severe and least common form of this group A strep is nectroizing fasciitis (ph), or that flesh eating-bacteria we hear about every once in awhile that destroys the muscle, the fat and the skin.

So on the whole, if you compare, Leon, there are about 9,400 group A strep cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control in 1999, and the Institutes of Health say in 2000, 8,800 cases, but compare that to the millions of cases of strep throat that occur each year, and you can see how rare this particular condition is.

HARRIS: That's amazing. That's absolutely amazing. Tell me this, you talked a bit how it is spread. How do you treat it, and what is the timeframe? What kind of window do you have to determine whether or not this is what you've got and to actually get treatment to it?

BLAKEY: You want to get very quick treatment, and oftentimes, that's a concern with this particular illness, is that it can spread in a great hurry. Treating an infected person, however, would call for antibiotics. The key there of course, being that you've got to keep those going for at least 24 hours, if not longer, and generally, that will eliminate the spread of the bacteria.

But it's extremely important, as anytime we talk about antibiotics, that the person take the entire course of antibiotics. Oftentimes, a two-week course is prescribed just to make sure to knock out the entire bug.

HARRIS: That's amazing. Thanks, Rea.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Recruit>


Aired December 17, 2002 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to unravel a medical mystery. Marine Corps officials are investigating the sudden death of a recruit in San Diego, and they're trying to determine whether he died from a bacterial outbreak that is infecting others at the facility.
Our Brian Cabell has details from Southern California.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest figures we have here from the Marine Corps recruit depot in San Diego are 21 recruits now hospitalized, one of them in critical condition with streptococcus a infection. In the last 24 hours, a couple dozen have been released from the hospital. About 10 more have been admitted, so the problem is ongoing.

Of course the problem -- the alarm was raised on Sunday when one recruit, 18-year-old was Miguel Zavala was admitted with a rash on his ankle. About thee hours after he was admitted, he died. So as a result now, 4,000 recruits and their instructors, all of them here at the base, have been given inoculations. They've also had throat swabs. The result of those swabs will be known tomorrow.

As a precaution, all major physical activity here has been curtailed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. JANE HULY, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We're not going to do any for 72 hours only. We're not going to do any swim qualifications. We're not going to run any obstacle courses. We're not going to do any martial arts training. And we're not going to do any PT. Just going out and running.

This will be filled in by added classroom instruction, safety classes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: Now, there have been two other deaths over the last three weeks, but they don't believe those were related to the infection. One of them died of cardiac arrest, another with fluid on his lungs. Again, it's not believed those are related to the current problem we're now facing, and it's believed, officials saying, that the problem is now under control.

I'm Brian Cabell, CNN in San Diego.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR; We want to find out some more about the type of bacterial outbreak that the Marines are coping with and with now, and our medical correspondent Rea Blakey joins us live from Washington to shed some more light on that.

Rea, good morning.

This is a strange story to see how this spread throughout this young man's body so quickly within a matter of hours. But how is it spread overall through a population?

REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's Caused by close contact, Leon, and oftentimes with the mucous membranes or a wound area in particular.

Let me give you a little more background on the bacterium itself. It's often found in the throat and on the skin. Quite commonly, many people carry it and have no symptoms of illness whatsoever.

In fact, most cases of GAS -- that's group a streptococcus (ph) infections, are relatively mild, life strep throat, but on rare occasion, it can cause other life-threatening illnesses.

Now in its milder form, some of the symptoms include fever, severe pain and swelling, as well as redness at the site. But in the least common forms of this severe illness, that variety can lead to streptococcus (ph) toxic shock syndrome. Now, that's not exactly the same as the toxic shock syndrome that we frequently hear about associated with tampon usage, but more than half the patients who have that variety, the toxic shock syndrome, will die. And in those cases, those symptoms include fever, dizziness, confusion and often a flat red rash over a large part of the body.

The other most severe and least common form of this group A strep is nectroizing fasciitis (ph), or that flesh eating-bacteria we hear about every once in awhile that destroys the muscle, the fat and the skin.

So on the whole, if you compare, Leon, there are about 9,400 group A strep cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control in 1999, and the Institutes of Health say in 2000, 8,800 cases, but compare that to the millions of cases of strep throat that occur each year, and you can see how rare this particular condition is.

HARRIS: That's amazing. That's absolutely amazing. Tell me this, you talked a bit how it is spread. How do you treat it, and what is the timeframe? What kind of window do you have to determine whether or not this is what you've got and to actually get treatment to it?

BLAKEY: You want to get very quick treatment, and oftentimes, that's a concern with this particular illness, is that it can spread in a great hurry. Treating an infected person, however, would call for antibiotics. The key there of course, being that you've got to keep those going for at least 24 hours, if not longer, and generally, that will eliminate the spread of the bacteria.

But it's extremely important, as anytime we talk about antibiotics, that the person take the entire course of antibiotics. Oftentimes, a two-week course is prescribed just to make sure to knock out the entire bug.

HARRIS: That's amazing. Thanks, Rea.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Recruit>