'Katrina Cough' Floats Around

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Katrina Cough

 

 

 

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November 4th, 2005 4:26 pm

 

 

'Katrina Cough' Floats Around

 

The storm's residual mold and muck may be causing respiratory

illnesses in people who have returned home

 

By Scott Gold and Ann M. Simmons / Los Angeles Times

 

NEW ORLEANS †" A large number of people along the Louisiana and

Mississippi coasts are developing a condition that some have dubbed

" Katrina cough, " believed to be linked to mold and dust circulating

after Hurricane Katrina.

 

Health officials say they are trying to determine how widespread the

problem is. There are suggestions that it is popping up regularly

among people who have returned to storm-ravaged areas, particularly

New Orleans.

 

Dr. Dennis Casey, one of the few ear, nose and throat doctors seeing

patients in New Orleans, called the condition " very prevalent. " And

Dr. Kevin Jordan, director of medical affairs at Touro Infirmary and

Memorial Medical Center in downtown New Orleans, said the hospital had

seen at least a 25% increase in complaints regarding sinus headaches,

congestion, runny noses and sore throats since Katrina.

 

In most cases, Casey said, patients appear to be " allergic to the

filth they are exposed to. " Those allergies make the patients more

susceptible to respiratory illness, including bacterial bronchitis and

sinusitis.

 

Among the public, the condition is known alternately as " Katrina

cough " and " Katrina's revenge " †" much to the consternation of

physicians who feel the monikers paint a needlessly alarming portrait

of the environment.

 

" It started out as a sore throat and scratchy eyes. That turned into a

cold, and that turned into a cough again, and that's where it stayed, "

said Christophe Hinton, 38, who was on the way to a medical clinic

Thursday to address an illness that had hung around for weeks,

impervious to over-the-counter cold medicine.

 

Hinton, who lives in the French Quarter, drove a taxi before Katrina

but now is working with a chain-saw crew, cutting up toppled trees

that need to be hauled away.

 

" Everybody's got this thing, " he said. " Everybody I know. "

 

Among healthy people, the condition is not considered serious and can

generally be treated with antihistamines, nasal sprays or, in the case

of bacterial infections, antibiotics.

 

" A lot of the patients I've been seeing, what they want to know is

whether I see black, furry stuff inside of them. The answer is no, "

Casey said. " I think the air quality is safe. I think it's noxious.

But is it dangerous? No. "

 

But the condition could be more serious for people whose health is

otherwise compromised †" for example, organ transplant patients;

people who are undergoing chemotherapy; or people who suffer from

emphysema, asthma, chronic bronchitis or other ailments.

 

" It could be life-threatening to those people, " said Dr. Peter

DeBlieux, associate medical director of the Spirit of Charity, a

MASH-style clinic that has been set up in downtown New Orleans. " Those

people are already living on a precipice and could be pushed off.

Those people are encouraged not to come back to the city. "

 

Some community and environmental advocates say that message is not

getting through to the public.

 

" People are going back in and getting sick, " said Wilma Subra, a

Louisiana environmental consultant and activist. " They are letting

people in without any information or any warning. "

 

Health officials in fact have attempted to warn people with certain

conditions to think twice before returning to New Orleans. State and

federal officials have handed out hundreds of thousands of fliers and

have taped warnings about mold to front doors in badly damaged

neighborhoods.

 

" We have made an effort to get the message out there, " said Kristen

Meyer, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health and

Hospitals. " But we're not working in ideal conditions here. "

 

Numerous factors have contributed to the public's confusion, Subra and

others said.

 

For example, despite the mold warnings, the government has issued

repeated public assurances that the air quality in areas affected by

Katrina is safe. But tests of air quality have been aimed almost

entirely at toxins, such as benzene, in areas where the storm caused

oil spills. There has been very little testing, officials said, of

" biologicals " †" namely, the airborne mold that appears to be causing

much of the problem.

 

Most state and federal officials believe there is no need for

additional testing because the contamination is confined largely to

houses that were flooded during the storm.

 

" It is an indoor environmental problem, primarily, " said Dr. Stephen

Redd, chief of the air pollution and respiratory health branch at the

National Center for Environmental Health, an arm of the federal

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

But some in the New Orleans area are developing respiratory conditions

without going inside badly damaged buildings or homes, Casey said.

 

" People who are actually going into the destroyed residences are

having a more severe time of it, " he said. " But I've also seen some

patients who have not actually engaged in that but have started having

symptoms just after driving through some of the affected areas. "

 

Several agencies have launched efforts to determine the scope of the

problem. The CDC is working with state health officials in Louisiana

and Mississippi to " see if it's more common than would be expected in

a normal situation, " Redd said. The CDC also will track records of

healthcare facilities to determine if there is an " unusual pattern of

illness, " he said.

 

" We are being watchful, " said Bernadette Burden, a CDC spokeswoman in

Atlanta. " Everything is very much in the infancy stage. "

 

 

 

" There is nothing worse than gangrene of the soul. "

Mike Malloy ~ 1/20/05