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CNN Live Sunday

Woman Dies of Mysterious Illness in New Jersey

Aired February 10, 2002 - 17:03   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our other top story, the outbreak of that mysterious illness. Doctors say the 45-year-old woman that died was critically ill when she arrived at Kennedy Memorial Hospital in New Jersey last night. A spokeswoman says her cause of death is believed to be infection with one of two types of bacteria, both of which can cause meningitis and pneumonia. The hospital is expected to confirm the cause of death tomorrow. A police spokesperson talked earlier about how health officials and investigators are dealing with this outbreak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. ROBERT ENGLISH, CHERRY HILL POLICE DEPARTMENT: We currently have the county health department at the Cherry Hill Hilton checking for any types of viruses and such, and we have detectives at the JFK Hospital checking for any information that links these people and any place they may have been together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: For more on the health threat posed by this mystery illness and the implications if it is meningitis, CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland joins us now.

Now of course, the difficult part here is, how do you even discern what to treat, if you are not even sure what kind of symptoms might be indicative of what illness?

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the first course here -- and they believe it's a bacterial infection -- and now what we are hearing is they believe it was actually pneumonia -- is to start off with treatment with antibiotics. If you have a bacterial infection, that's what you start with.

And I think what seems unusual here is how quickly this woman became ill. We understand it was just a matter of hours where she became severely ill, with chills, fever, nausea. And she went into the hospital, and died within hours of this particular infection. But they're still trying to figure out exactly what it is. They can do a spinal tap to get a definitive diagnosis.

WHITFIELD: And now, the symptoms can be quite similar, can't they, between meningitis and pneumonia -- and even flu? ROWLAND: And the flu, exactly. You have the fever, the chills, the nausea, stiff neck. Stiff neck is really something you see with meningitis -- coughing. So that's why it's important to get a definitive diagnosis. But again, you go in and you try to treat aggressively with antibiotics.

But in the case of some of these bacterial infections, about 10 to 15 percent of the patients can die very quickly, even if they are very healthy. This woman was 45 years old. We don't know about her general health, but this can happen.

WHITFIELD: Now, there are also vaccines. So when do you know how to treat with a vaccine and when to treat with antibiotics, at what stage?

ROWLAND: Well, in this case, we know everyone is being treated with antibiotics. And we know, in addition to this woman who was treated, seven other people who were at this hotel were at the hospital. We understand they're in good condition.

About 80 other people that came in contact with her, including emergency personnel, were also given prophylactic antibiotics, specifically Cipro, which, Fredricka, we heard about with anthrax. And the reason Cipro is often given is because it's a very powerful antibiotic. It's a big gun, and you get that out when you really don't know what kind of infection you are dealing with.

WHITFIELD: Now, how unusual is this that the hotel was quarantined for a moment? That seems to be pretty unusual when we talk about either pneumonia or even meningitis.

ROWLAND: That's not something that I have heard much about. Even when you have these outbreaks on college campuses, you don't often hear of a quarantine situation. You may go in and try to get the contacts of the person, get treatment to them. But in this case, overnight people at the hotel were guaranteed.

And Fredricka, it could be because right now physicians are on very high alert, ever since the anthrax outbreaks, to look for any unusual illnesses that could possibly indicate something to just make sure that everyone is checked out.

WHITFIELD: Being on edge for good reason.

ROWLAND: That's right. Just to be extra cautious.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Rhonda, for that explanation.

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