Mystery pneumonia toll may be much higher

[MORTARDUDE]

Mystery pneumonia toll may be much higher -- 16 Sep 2003

By Mark Benjamin
UPI Investigations Editor
Published 9/16/2003

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Mysterious pneumonia-like illnesses and
breathing problems appear to be striking U.S. troops in greater numbers than
the
military has identified in an investigation -- including more deaths,
according to
soldiers and their families.

Some of the soldiers were deployed to Iraq and died but are not part of the
Pentagon's investigation. Others who got ill told United Press International
they suffered a pneumonia-like illness after being given vaccines,
particularly
the anthrax shot.

The Pentagon said it is committed to the health of military personnel and
that some dead or ill soldiers do not meet criteria for the investigation.
Pentagon health officials said a statistical analysis essentially has ruled
out
vaccines and that the role of smoking has emerged as a leading factor instead.

One Air Force staff sergeant who was deployed to Turkey for Operation Iraqi
Freedom told UPI he was hospitalized in Incerlik in March with a
pneumonia-like
illness, 10 days after his fourth anthrax shot. He got his next anthrax shot
in August, and 10 days later was hospitalized in California with what he said
was the same pneumonia-like illness.

"They said I had considerable inflammation of the lungs," said Staff Sgt.
Neal B. Erickson Sr., 43, in a telephone interview from Moffett Field south
of
San Francisco. "I had severe chest pains, dizziness and shortness of breath."

He said he does not smoke and that doctors thought he had blood clots or a
heart attack. Tests for viruses or bacteria "came back clean," Erickson said.
"They basically labeled it as a type of pneumonia."

He said the military is not recognizing that the shots made him sick and that
he is afraid of getting the next anthrax shot, scheduled in five months.

"I'm real touchy here. Come a few more months, I'm in line to get another.
It's not like we have a choice in the matter." Military personnel are
required
to take the shots and can be court-martialed if they refuse.

Erickson said there are at least four similar cases in his squadron,
including one hospitalization.

The Pentagon is investigating what it says is a mysterious pneumonia cluster
that has sickened around 100 soldiers deployed across Southwest Asia. "I'll
bet I'm not in (the Pentagon's) numbers," Erickson said.

Pentagon health officials repeatedly have emphasized that the number of sick
soldiers in their investigation show there is no "epidemic" among U.S.
troops.
They are concentrating on 19 service members who have gotten so sick they
needed ventilators to breathe; two of those died.

"We do not have an epidemic," Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health
Affairs William Winkenwerder Jr. told reporters last week. "The rates of
pneumonia
among personnel deployed to Southwest Asia in the past six months are
consistent with what we would have expected, and we have data that strongly
supports
that."

The Pentagon has identified two deaths in its investigation: the July 12
death of Army Spc. Joshua M. Neusche, 20; and the June 17 death of Army Sgt.
Michael L. Tosto, 24. Neusche's family wrote Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld
last month seeking an independent investigation of his death. Tosto's wife,
Stephanie, told UPI last month she was frustrated at the lack of information
on
her husband's death, but said she thinks vaccines played a role.

At least two more soldiers deployed to Iraq died with fluid in their lungs,
according to their families; one of those was found dead in his cot. The
Pentagon has not released any information on two more soldiers found dead in
Iraq
under similar circumstances. In a fifth case, a 20-year-old died after what
the
Pentagon said were "breathing difficulties" and his mother has said she wants
more information.

At least two more soldiers died after experiencing chest pain, including the
Aug. 27 death of 43-year-old Lt. Col Anthony L. Sherman, who competed in
triathlons and marathons. "The only thing they had to tell me was severe
myocardial
infarction," said his wife, Lisa Ann, from Pottstown, Pa. "In my heart of
hearts, I believe there was more to it than just a heart attack. He was in
too
good of shape."

All of those deaths appear on the Pentagon list of non-combat related
fatalities but were not included in the pneumonia investigation.

The Pentagon said that in its investigation, it has focused on a specific
group of ill soldiers. "Other cases are medically reviewed separately because
it
would be scientifically inappropriate to combine the reviews," Pentagon
medical officials told UPI in a written statement.

The investigation is focused on serious cases of illness that occurred
between March 1 and Aug. 31 among military personnel who were deployed and
who
report to the United States Central Command, which includes the Horn of
Africa,
South and Central Asia and the Northern Red Sea regions, as well as the
Arabian
Peninsula and Iraq. Pentagon investigators are focusing on soldiers who
developed pneumonia in both lungs and were placed on ventilators to breathe.

Some civilian doctors said those parameters are too narrow and ignore cases
that could help identify the cause.

"I think the military is making a scientific mistake by restricting the
region from which they are collecting these cases," said Dr. Meryl Nass, a
doctor
who treats soldiers who say they were harmed by vaccines. "There is no
scientific reason to limit the geographical envelope from which cases are
identified,"
Nass said. "You want to capture as many cases as possible to investigate, in
order to get a broad outline of all the features of the disease."

Pentagon officials said their statistical analysis shows that vaccinated
military personnel are no more likely to develop pneumonia than unvaccinated
soldiers. Nor are they more likely to develop it soon after getting
vaccinated.

"We knew beforehand that the rate of pneumonia in anthrax-vaccinated people
and in anthrax-unvaccinated people were essentially the same, so our starting
point was that this was unlikely," Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director of
the Military Vaccine Office, told reporters.

Pentagon health officials said 10 of the 19 cases they are studying had
eosinophilia, or the presence of a large number of a specific kind of white
blood
cell that can indicate an allergic response. Doctors have been unable to
detect
any virus or bacteria that might have caused the illness in those cases.

A reaction to a drug might cause eosinophilia, according to the Centers for
Disease Control doctor assisting the military in the investigation, Dr. Steve
Ostroff.

"Obviously, one can have an allergy to a particular type of medication ...
and that is certainly a line of investigation we can't entirely exclude,"
Ostroff told reporters. "There doesn't seem to be any particular type of
unifying
treatment that was given to these individuals."

A civilian doctor questioned that logic.

"They keep saying there is no common exposure, but every one of those
soldiers got vaccinated," said Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, an infectious diseases
doctor at
the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wis. "That is one definite common exposure
that should not be dismissed out of hand."

"Statistics by themselves only give you part of the story," said Sartin, a
former Air Force doctor. "They are getting a bird's eye view of the forest
but
they are not getting down and looking at the trees."

This spring, Sartin treated Army Spc. Rachel Lacy of Lynwood, Ill., who died
April 4 after a pneumonia-like illness. He and a coroner linked that
soldier's
death to either the anthrax or smallpox vaccines she had received March 2,
before falling ill.

Lacy's June 3 death certificate lists vaccines as a possible cause for her
lung damage, heart inflammation "with eosinophils," and "lupus-like
autoimmune
disease."

The military, which did not treat her or perform the autopsy, said her death
was likely not due to vaccines.

A number of soldiers who were not deployed said the anthrax vaccine made them
sick.

Army Pvt. Dennis W. Drew, 27, got his first anthrax shot April 24 at Fort
Hood, Texas, in preparation for going to Iraq. He started feeling ill April
27.

"I started getting a real sharp pain in my chest. I had a hard time breathing
and every time I moved, my chest hurt." Drew said. "I checked into a hospital
and I found out I had pneumonia in my left lung and myocarditis, a swelling
of the heart. Basically, my health has been going down hill ever since."

Drew says he quit smoking four years ago and was in good shape. In addition
to his pneumonia, he said he has since suffered from severe headaches, loss
of
peripheral vision and constant colds. "It is like my immune system does not
work anymore," he said. "When I first got to Fort Hood, the doctor there
thought
the myocarditis might have been caused by the vaccine."

Drew wrote to Congress about his belief that the vaccine has ruined his life
with his wife and two small children.

"I would invite anyone who doesn't believe in the adverse reaction of the
anthrax vaccine to come spend a day in my home to see first hand what my
family
and I go through," Drew wrote to House National Security Subcommittee
Chairman
Chris Shays, R-Conn., on Aug. 31. "We are just victims of wanting to serve
our
country."

Drew said he knows of three other similar cases at Fort Hood.

Among deaths of soldiers with pneumonia-like symptoms and breathing problems
who served in operation Iraqi Freedom, and are not included in the Pentagon
investigation:

-- Army Spc. Zeferino E. Colunga, 20, of Bellville, Texas. Colunga died on
Aug. 6 after being evacuated from Iraq to Germany. Colunga's family wrote
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last month seeking an independent
analysis of
his death from "this 'so-called' mystery illness." The family said Colunga
"died at a hospital in Germany after a battle with pneumonia and a subsequent
diagnosis of acute leukemia. We deserve to know why a healthy young man who
was
supposedly screened and determined fit for deployment would suddenly die,"
the
letter says. The military specifically ruled out Colunga's death as part of
the
pneumonia cluster.

-- Army Spc. Cory A. Hubbell, 20, of Urbana, Ill. Hubbel died June 26 from
what has been reported as "breathing difficulties," and listed by the
Pentagon
as a "non-combat related cause." He died after being hospitalized at Camp
Arifjan in Kuwait. Hubbel's mother, Connie Bickers, told the Champaign
News-Gazette
that the Army is not giving her many answers on the death.

-- Army Spc. Levi B. Kinchen, 21, of Tickfaw, La. Tickfaw died Aug. 9 in
Baghdad. A fellow soldier tried to wake him and noticed he was not breathing,
according to the Pentagon. He was assigned to 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment,
Fort
Polk, La.

-- Army Staff Sergeant Richard S. Eaton Jr., 37, of Guilford, Conn. Eaton was
found dead on the morning of Aug. 12. The military has told the family that
Eaton died of pulmonary edema, or fluid in his lungs, that might have been
heat-related. Eaton's father Richard told UPI he has no reason to doubt the
Army's
explanation, but he said he has not received a final report on his son.

-- Army Pvt. Matthew D. Bush, 20, of East Alton, Ill. Bush died Aug. 8 in
Camp Caldwell, Iraq. A fellow soldier tried to wake him and noticed he was
not
breathing, according to the Pentagon. Pentagon officials have indicated that
his
death might have been heat-related.

-- Army Staff Sgt. David L. Loyd, 44, of Jackson, Tenn. Loyd died Aug. 5 in a
Kuwaiti hospital after he experienced severe chest pains while on a mission.
He was assigned to the 1175th Transportation Company, Army National Guard,
Brownsville, Tenn.

-- Lt. Col. Anthony L. Sherman, 43, of Pottstown, Pa. Sherman died on Aug. 27
in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. The Pentagon said Sherman died "as a result of
non-combat related injury (medical)." His wife, Lisa Ann, said the Army told
her
Sherman died of "a severe myocardial infarction." She said she was suspicious
because he was a marathon runner. Sherman was assigned to the 304th Civil
Affairs Brigade, U.S. Army Reserves, based in Philadelphia, Pa.

-- Army Spc. William A. Jeffries, 39, of Evansville, Ind. Jeffries died March
31 at a hospital in Spain after becoming sick in Kuwait. A military official
reportedly told Jeffries' family that he suffered a blood clot in his lung
and
acute pancreatitis.

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Photos are available with this story: FMP2003091601 through -1607