Heat likely killer

Press, 16 August 1976, Page 6

Heat likely killer

> NZPA-Reuter Miami An illness that killed five elderly residents of a Florida nursing home, and briefly affected 19 others, may have been caused by a heat wave and the failure of an air conditioner, according to health officials in the town of Boynton Beach. Only three of the 19 residents who survived the illness still had fevers and remained in isolation yesterday, said Dr Robert Lumish, of the United States Centre .for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia. No new cases were reported among the other 70 patients at the Boulevard Manor nursing home. “This has calmed down very quickly,” Dr Lumish said of the illness. “We don’t have it all sorted out yet, but it doesn’t seem very nasty”. Scientists performed laboratory tests on blood, urine, and tissue samples from affected residents in a search for a biological cause. Officials said tests might not be completed for several days. But they seemed to lean toward the theory that the already ill, weak, elderly people could not withstand temperatures that reached in to the 30s C last week. The symptoms were high fever, lethargy, sore throats, and coughing. Doctors said the illness did not appear to be contagious, and said they doubted there was any connection between the deaths and “Legionnaire’s Disease” ; which struck more than 160 I people after an American i Legion convention in Philadelphia last month.