Seven people in Alabama recently became victims of a mystery illness which had the state’s public health department worried, especially after the illness claimed the lives two of the victims.
The Alabama Department of Public Health announced Thursday the illness has been identified and is no longer a mystery, according to ABCNews.com.
Tests showed the seven illnesses were a blend of the common cold and a strain of flu. Contrary to speculation, the strain was neither the H7N9 bird flu nor the SARS-like Coronavirus that is worrying many in other areas of the globe.
"This is a great example of science sorting through the mystery of a 'pseudo-outbreak,'" said Chief Health and Medical Editor for ABC News Dr. Richard Besser. "As expected these were a variety of infections that just happened to occur close in time."
The health department became weary of the mystery illnesses on May 16 after seven people showed symptoms—coughing, shortness of breath, fever—with no real reason or cause. According to the health case’s lead investigator Dr. Mary McIntyre, two of the patients eventually passed away because of pneumonia.
Besides the fact the patients all lived in Alabama, they had almost no commonalties. They even spanned in age from mid 20s to late 80s.
Even though the illnesses turned out to be more of a coincidence than officials had anticipated, Besser says the health department still made the right call.
"You never want to assume that there isn't a connection, because as soon as you do that, you will be proved wrong," Besser said. "The first cases of the next SARS or the next flu pandemic could look very much like this. You treat every one of these clusters the same: You attack it with rapid public health science."
According to McIntyre, the five patients seem to be improving. One was released from care on Tuesday.
