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Mystery illness is pneumonia
By Nadia Fazlulhaq
Health authorities say the mystery illness that killed six people in Galle District recently has been identified as a type of pneumonia and there is no threat of it spreading to other parts of the country.

Six people died after admission to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital as they did not respond to the treatment given them. This caused panic in the hospital and the area with a fear that an unknown disease had afflicted these persons.
Five other persons with similar symptoms were also admitted to the hospital and blood samples taken from them were sent to the Medical Research Institute (MRI) and the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry.

“The preliminary results showed the cause as pneumonia, so we believe that there is no risk that the disease may spread to other parts of the country” said Assistant Director of the Health Ministry media unit M A. Hassen.
Epidemiology Unit Director Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe said six samples were sent to the MRI of which four showed negative results and two were positive for pneumonia.

“There is no need to worry as it is a general influenza and these suspected patients were admitted at the same time to the ICU from different wards due to various reasons. We are sure that this is a virus infection and it is not spreading anymore,” he said.

According to Dr. Abeysinghe no cases were reported in the past three days and the Karapitiya hospital authorities are on alert over this virus.
When the Sunday Times contacted the MRI, a consultant said the laboratory results regarding this case cannot be revealed

Karapitiya Teaching Hospital Director Dr.P.K. Wijewickrama said, “We are carefully monitoring the suspected patients who are isolated in a unit, until reports confirm the virus is not spreading. I have advised the hospital staff to take all safety measures and inform the Medical Officers of Health in the specific areas the suspected patients came from.”

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