Iraq pneumonia spate baffles US

Pneumonia is common even if troops are told to keep healthy

Army medical experts have been struggling to explain why about 100 US troops, who served mostly in Iraq, have contracted pneumonia since March.

The army has discounted biological weapons and Sars as possible reasons for the spate which has killed two soldiers and made 13 others seriously ill.

A team of medical investigators is due to arrive in Iraq within hours to try to identify any link between the cases.

But military officials say pneumonia remains common - even among fit young people - although troops are being encouraged to take precautions to stay healthy.

The illness has begun to attract public attention in the US, particularly after the two deaths, correspondents say.

SERIOUS PNEUMONIA CASES IN US FORCES IN IRAQ REGION March: 2 April: 2 May: 1 June: 6 July: 4

The mother of Josh Neusche, 20, who died last month, told the UK's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that she believed her son had stumbled across something deadly while clearing rubble in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.

Colonel Robert DeFraites of the Office of the Army Surgeon General said officials were concerned particularly by the two deaths and 13 other cases where the troops concerned needed to be put on a respirator.

But they did not believe them to have a sinister cause, he said.

"There's been no positive findings of any anthrax or smallpox or any other biological weapons... I'm pretty close to ruling it out," Colonel DeFraites told a news conference.

Samples taken from the sick have also shown no indications of the pneumonia-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) which killed hundreds of people - mainly in China and Hong Kong - earlier this year.

Far-flung cases

Colonel DeFraites said statistically the rates of infection and even deaths connected to troops in Iraq would not be considered unusual, given the fact that pneumonia remains common and a large bulk of the US forces were in the region.

Heat and sandstorms can be hazardous to health

Worldwide, the US army treats between 400 and 500 of its personnel for pneumonia each year, and there are on average three deaths a year from the disease.

Two-thirds of the most severe recent cases occurred in Iraq, but pneumonia has also hit troops in Qatar and Uzbekistan.

The 15 worst cases all came from different units and there has been no indication of any transmission from one person to another.

Colonel DeFraites said non-infectious causes of pneumonia could include dust and smoke.

The investigation teams - one on its way to Iraq and the other at a military hospital in Germany where some of the patients were treated - will check for clues in environmental conditions and what the troops were doing before they fell ill.

Military personnel working in Iraq and elsewhere in the region are being encouraged to take precautions not to become dehydrated in the intense summer heat and to cover their mouths and noses where dust occurs.