- Family and friends of three people who died suddenly
in Dunedin will complete questionnaires in an effort to establish the victims'
movements before they died.
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- This comes as heath officials identified a fourth possible
victim of the mystery illness.
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- Officials are still trying to identify if there is a
common cause for the sudden collapse and death of the two women and a man,
aged in their 40s and 50s.
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- Autopsies have shown they suffered from bleeding into
the lungs.
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- The questionnaire will look for any common factors in
the victims' final movements.
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- On Friday a health expert told ONE News there had been
a fourth suspected case of the mystery illness in Dunedin a week before
the first fatality.
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- The man (33) exhibited similar symptoms to the other
three cases. He suffered from a pulmonary haemorrhage but was given a blood
transfusion and released after a week in hospital.
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- A sample taken from his blood tests is now alongside
those of the other three cases.
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- The most recent fatality, Julie King, was found by her
daughter in her bedroom after King said she was unwell and going to lie
down.
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- Friends and family said goodbye to King (46) at her funeral
in Christchurch on Friday.
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- Dunedin Hospital's emergency department was busy on Friday
dealing with people's reaction to the news of the mysterious deaths this
month, taking several calls overnight from worried people.
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- Doctors have a viral cell culture of the infectious agent
which has led to the deaths, but what caused the haemorrhaging is still
a mystery.
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- But Microbiologist Tim Blackmore said the deaths are
likely to be a coincidence.
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- "It's much less likely to be a weird and wonderful
virus that no one has discovered before. It's more likely to be statistical
quirk," he said.
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- The three victims lived within a five kilometre radius
of each other in Dunedin city and the southern suburbs.
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- None had been unwell prior to their deaths. Two of the
three died within one hour of collapsing and the third victim died after
being admitted to hospital.
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- Laboratories across New Zealand are still checking out
samples of the infectious agent.
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- Otago Medical Officer of Health John Holmes said nothing
more can be done until preliminary investigations are completed. He said
it should take about two weeks before test results were available.
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- A shipment of samples left New Zealand on Friday morning
bound for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
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- http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,217075-1-6,00.html
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