[url]msnbc.com/news/752640.asp[/url]

Fever hits U.K. troops in Afghanistan

18 soldiers struck by mystery illness; 350 quarantined


ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGRAM, Afghanistan, May 15 — Eighteen British soldiers serving in Afghanistan have been struck by a contagious but unidentified fever, and 350 people have been quarantined to prevent it spreading, the top British commander in the coalition said Wednesday.
       BRIG. ROGER LANE said the 18 ailing men were all military medical personnel serving at the main allied air base at Bagram, about 30 miles north of the capital, Kabul.
      Two of the soldiers were seriously ill and their next of kin have been notified, Lane said. One was evacuated to Britain for treatment while the other was flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. The rest are being cared for at Bagram.
      “We believe it’s some kind of enteric (intestinal) fever, but we have yet to go and establish what exactly it is,” Lane said.
      Soldiers first started reporting symptoms three days ago, including fever, diarrhea and vomiting, Lane said. The illness was similar to meningitis, but medics did not believe that was the culprit.  
Advertisement  



        Lane said the area around the field hospital where the sick soldiers work had been isolated and military police were deployed to prevent trespassers. Some 350 people work at the hospital.
      About 1,700 British troops are currently deployed at Bagram and have been involved in two military operations in eastern Afghanistan since arriving in the country last month. There also are soldiers from countries ranging from Australia to Poland at Bagram, including about 2,700 U.S. troops.  
Lane said, however, that no hospital personnel had left the base since they arrived. The hospital has treated almost exclusively British troops, though one Afghan was treated two weeks ago, he said.
      Earlier this month, three British Royal Marines were evacuated to Bagram during an operation in mountainous eastern Afghanistan. Two were diagnosed with altitude sickness and one had dysentery

Biochem weapons?

Scott

Islam? weapons...
NO way..,.  they are peaceloving .. dont you know that..

now off to your room for saying that islamic fighters might use chemical weapons...

It would have to be Biological if it is any sort of weapon at all??  There is also that Hemorigic fever over there.  

God I hope its not some Bio weapon.

If they use anything remotely bio, or nuclear  then they had better brace themselves for our response.

I know that we are alowed to respond in kind...
but do you really think we will..
the Arabs will go ape$hit if we do what they do..

Some chemical weapons can "mask" as an outbreak of an illness, until identified. Would we ever respond with NBC weapons? Very doubtful...

Scott

Might be bio-engineered dysentery...

Scott

No, we will not use Bio weapons, our policy for response to a MASSIVE BIO ATTACK (Thousands of Causualties) has always been nuclear weapons. But in the case of a small scale bio weapon laydown, Chances are good, that there will be no response at all, and that it will be covered up and blamed on a local disease.

the first thing I would like to know is, if any of the local Afghans are sick? Could this be a local virus, that the afghan population has a built in geoghraphic immunity built up for, that has suddenly found new life in the non-immune foriegn troops?

Well...let me be the first to say OH CRAP!!

Ya wonder if something got released when they keep blowing up all those munitions that have been captured...

Uh oh...

Ted...

Sounds like the Gulf War Syndrum the troops were getting from Desert Storm maybe?

We don't have enough details. I am sure the CDC is looking into it.

Ben