The Guangzhou
Children's Hospital says that it has treated another case of a
rare pediatric respiratory ailment, the Guangzhou Daily
reported on Wednesday.
On March 27, a 22-month-old baby was admitted to the hospital
with breathing problems. Treating physicians found a large amount
of white, fibrous material resembling plastic inside the child's
windpipe and surgically removed it.
The doctors could find no associated virus or bacteria.
The hospital said that it has seen 10 patients with the disease
since 2002, and that two children had died from it.
Doctors said they know of no effective treatment for the
mysterious ailment other than surgery.
The hospital said it was unaware of any reports of the disease
elsewhere in China. Doctors believe that similar cases have been
reported in other countries since the early 1900s, but it has not
been assigned a proper medical name. The hospital is calling the
disease "plastic pneumonia syndrome."
If not properly treated, children with the disease will have
increasingly serious breathing problems, they warned. They believe
the disease may have caused deaths in other hospitals if it is
treated as pneumonia.
Doctors said children with the disease usually also have kidney
and cardiovascular problems.
(Shenzhen Daily March 31, 2005)