Five more Marines get malaria symptoms off Liberia
Associated Press
? September 11, 2003 | Last updated 11:51 AM Sep. 11
WASHINGTON -- The number of malaria cases among U.S. Marines and those serving with them in Liberia rose again today, with 51 showing symptoms of the illness, defense officials said.
Five new patients were identified with mild cases and were treated aboard the USS Iwo Jima rather than evacuated out of the region, officials said.
Navy doctors are investigating what they say is an unusually high rate of the illness among service members who were in Liberia only briefly last month on a peacekeeping mission, then returned to a three-ship amphibious group offshore.
The 51 sickened represent almost a fourth of some 225 who went ashore to help West African peacekeepers last month. They include an Army soldier, three sailors and one civilian, with the rest Marines.
Twenty of the 41 evacuated to the states have been discharged from the hospital and are under outpatient care. Six of eight treated on the Iwo Jima have returned to duty and two remain at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Pentagon officials said.
Doctors are looking into three possible reasons for the outbreak: The strain of malaria troops got has become resistant to the drug they took; troops didn't take the drug correctly; or the drug had gone bad or been manufactured incorrectly
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