Scott McPherson's Web Presence

The cases all come from nowhere.  They involve bright, energetic, athletic students.  They begin feeling feverish, exhausted, shaken. Then they experience violent seizures, are sent into a medically-induced coma.  And then, for two of the three afflicted students, they die.

The Houston Chronicle reports from early May are chilling.  Students 60 miles apart, with no apparent links, succomb to the same symptoms.

Now, in Dothan, Alabama, we are seeing a hauntingly familiar situation unfold.  With the exception of the seizures, the symptoms are strikingly similar. 

A television station much closer to the outbreak -- NBC affiliate WPMI, Mobile/Pensacola, is reporting that:

Doctors investigating the illness have not yet found a common denominator in the patients, whose ages range between the 20’s and 80’s, other than their symptoms. Doctors tested samples from the 7 patients at the state health lab to determine if there is from them to find “strain matching fingerprint” she added.

Doctors are analyzing those tests with investigators from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Atlanta office. State health officials, The Alabama Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control Respiratory Laboratory are analyzing lab tests from all seven patients. Officials hope to have preliminary results on the samples back by Wednesday or Thursday morning.

Okee dokee, it is late Thursday morning.  What do we know?