What’s killing Amazon children? Medical teams search for clues of mystery disease that has killed eight

Three medical teams are on the ground in Taisha canton, Morona Santiago Province, trying to determine what killed eight children and hospitalized 11 others. The latest death was of a seven-year-old boy who died while being airlifted from Taisha to Vicente Corral Moscoso Hospital in Cuenca, where two other Morona Santiago children are being treated.

A doctor examines an eight-year-old girl at the Taisha Hospital. She was later transferred to Vicente Corral Moscoso Hospital in Cuenca.

In a Thursday news conference, Health Minister Edgar Lama said it is “the highest national priority” to control the disease. “Our doctors and researchers are looking into all possible causes of the outbreak, including food and water contamination,” he said. “Blood and other samples from the infected children are being analyzed at several labs but at this time all we know is that we are dealing with an infectious agent of an unknown nature.”

So far, Lama said, all those infected in the outbreak that began in December have been children. “We have found no adult cases in the area with similar symptoms.” He added that there is no indication of person-to-person transmission.”

Asked if the disease could be mosquito-borne, Lama said that is yet to be determined. Ecuador recorded its second yellow fever death Wednesday when a 22-year-old man from Sucúa died at José Carrasco Arteaga Social Security Hospital in Cuenca.

According to doctors who have treated the children, they all suffered from high fever, joint pain, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea. “These symptoms are common in a range of tropical diseases, so our mission is to narrow the possibilities down to the source,” says William Ugalde, a tropical disease physician who leads one of the research teams. “What is clear is that this is a terrible and very painful illness that we need to identify and control as quickly as possible.”

Lama said that all children with symptoms of the disease are now being transferred to Cuenca. “The first cases have been treated at hospitals in Morona Santiago, but the victims need more sophisticated care, which means they will be transported to Cuenca.”