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San Antonio Express-News
December 3, 2007 By Sig Christenson, Express-News
Try as it might, Lackland AFB can't shake the "boot camp flu."
The base said 245 of its recruits suffered from the malady over the last three months, with 10 hospitalized for pneumonia. During that time frame, 430 recruits were put on bed rest for viruses of all kinds.
The numbers weren't as large as earlier this year, when one recruit died, and there was a significant drop-off in adenovirus cases in November, with just 39 airmen testing positive for it through Thursday.
But virtually all of the recruits had the most virulent and mysterious form of the virus, adeno serotype 14, which contributed to the death of Airman Paige Renee Villers over the summer.
"I'm not a conspiracy person, so I wouldn't assume this is unusual at all," said Jean Patterson, who chairs the virology and immunology department at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research. "We fight the bugs, the bug gets in, and this is just the way nature works."
The number of airmen sickened by the virus this fall was relatively small compared to the total number of boots in training, an average of 4,313 in September and October, and 3,466 in November. Yet months after it swept over Lackland, the bug still dogs the Air Force's basic training hub during flu season, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said runs from November to March.
Lackland has struggled much of this year to cope with adenovirus outbreaks, putting hundreds of sick recruits on bed rest and occasionally hospitalizing them at Wilford Hall Medical Center. Villers, 19, of Norton, Ohio, died Aug. 7, nearly six months after entering basic training. She was the first Lackland recruit to die since 2005.
The results of her autopsy are being withheld because of federal privacy laws, said Dave Smith, a spokesman for the Air Education and Training Command, which oversees Lackland.
This spring, the base asked the CDC, along with the Texas Department of State Health Services, to make a visit during the outbreak. Lackland did not notify the media about its actions until mid-June, when it revealed that 100 airmen had contracted a strain of the virus known as boot camp flu.
Base officials told the San Antonio Express-News at the time that 17 recruits had been hospitalized for up to a week. But they failed to mention that Villers had been gravely ill or later say that she had died — a deviation from past practice. The base revealed the incident only after being asked by the Express-News, which had received a tip from a reader.
Last week, Lackland said it diagnosed 96 recruits with various types of adenovirus in September and 100 in October. Nine in every 10 of those recruits had the adeno 14 strain in September, with all 100 percent diagnosed with it over the past two months, the base reported.
Three recruits came down with adenovirus-related pneumonia in September, while four had it in October. Three more were diagnosed with pneumonia through Nov. 20.The base reported that through Thursday, it had put 89 trainees on bed rest stints that lasted an average of a little more than two days.Experts say adenovirus commonly is found in recruit populations, where young people live in close quarters.
Uncommon in the general population but more frequently seen in the close quarters of boot camp, adenovirus 14 causes such flu-like symptoms as fever, coughing and a runny nose. It is one of the least understood of 50 such viruses. Recruits who contract it tend to be tired and under stress, increasing the risk of pneumonia.
Patterson, the Southwest Foundation's virology chief, speculated that a single recruit might have brought adeno 14 to Lackland. It then spread among people who hadn't been exposed to the virus, she said.
Adeno 14, she predicted, would run its course on the base — only to be replaced by another bug.
"I don't think it's going to get worse. Perhaps these recruits now have spread adeno 14 all over the country, and we've all been exposed to it and no one's going to get sick again from that strain," explained Patterson, a Harvard Medical School professor from 1984 until she came to San Antonio 12 years later.
"I'm am absolutely certain there will be another strain of adenovirus, just as I'm sure adenovirus will be brought by college students around the country back to their dorms, and people will get sick and cough all through the month of January," Patterson said.
December 3, 2007 By Sig Christenson, Express-News
Try as it might, Lackland AFB can't shake the "boot camp flu."
The base said 245 of its recruits suffered from the malady over the last three months, with 10 hospitalized for pneumonia. During that time frame, 430 recruits were put on bed rest for viruses of all kinds.
The numbers weren't as large as earlier this year, when one recruit died, and there was a significant drop-off in adenovirus cases in November, with just 39 airmen testing positive for it through Thursday.
But virtually all of the recruits had the most virulent and mysterious form of the virus, adeno serotype 14, which contributed to the death of Airman Paige Renee Villers over the summer.
"I'm not a conspiracy person, so I wouldn't assume this is unusual at all," said Jean Patterson, who chairs the virology and immunology department at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research. "We fight the bugs, the bug gets in, and this is just the way nature works."
The number of airmen sickened by the virus this fall was relatively small compared to the total number of boots in training, an average of 4,313 in September and October, and 3,466 in November. Yet months after it swept over Lackland, the bug still dogs the Air Force's basic training hub during flu season, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said runs from November to March.
Lackland has struggled much of this year to cope with adenovirus outbreaks, putting hundreds of sick recruits on bed rest and occasionally hospitalizing them at Wilford Hall Medical Center. Villers, 19, of Norton, Ohio, died Aug. 7, nearly six months after entering basic training. She was the first Lackland recruit to die since 2005.
The results of her autopsy are being withheld because of federal privacy laws, said Dave Smith, a spokesman for the Air Education and Training Command, which oversees Lackland.
This spring, the base asked the CDC, along with the Texas Department of State Health Services, to make a visit during the outbreak. Lackland did not notify the media about its actions until mid-June, when it revealed that 100 airmen had contracted a strain of the virus known as boot camp flu.
Base officials told the San Antonio Express-News at the time that 17 recruits had been hospitalized for up to a week. But they failed to mention that Villers had been gravely ill or later say that she had died — a deviation from past practice. The base revealed the incident only after being asked by the Express-News, which had received a tip from a reader.
Last week, Lackland said it diagnosed 96 recruits with various types of adenovirus in September and 100 in October. Nine in every 10 of those recruits had the adeno 14 strain in September, with all 100 percent diagnosed with it over the past two months, the base reported.
Three recruits came down with adenovirus-related pneumonia in September, while four had it in October. Three more were diagnosed with pneumonia through Nov. 20.The base reported that through Thursday, it had put 89 trainees on bed rest stints that lasted an average of a little more than two days.Experts say adenovirus commonly is found in recruit populations, where young people live in close quarters.
Uncommon in the general population but more frequently seen in the close quarters of boot camp, adenovirus 14 causes such flu-like symptoms as fever, coughing and a runny nose. It is one of the least understood of 50 such viruses. Recruits who contract it tend to be tired and under stress, increasing the risk of pneumonia.
Patterson, the Southwest Foundation's virology chief, speculated that a single recruit might have brought adeno 14 to Lackland. It then spread among people who hadn't been exposed to the virus, she said.
Adeno 14, she predicted, would run its course on the base — only to be replaced by another bug.
"I don't think it's going to get worse. Perhaps these recruits now have spread adeno 14 all over the country, and we've all been exposed to it and no one's going to get sick again from that strain," explained Patterson, a Harvard Medical School professor from 1984 until she came to San Antonio 12 years later.
"I'm am absolutely certain there will be another strain of adenovirus, just as I'm sure adenovirus will be brought by college students around the country back to their dorms, and people will get sick and cough all through the month of January," Patterson said.