OR: Mysterious illness that can cause hallucinations hits Coos Bay - seems to spread person to person

[Emily]

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2016/10/mysterious_illness_that_can_ca.html

[h=1]Mysterious illness that can cause hallucinations hits Coos Bay[/h] By Lynne Terry | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on October 12, 2016 at 2:36 PM, updated October 12, 2016 at 3:55 PM
A mysterious illness that can cause hallucinations has struck Coos Bay.
It all started Tuesday afternoon when a caregiver who works with a 78-year-old woman called 911. She reported that seven or eight people were trying to take the roof off her vehicle.
A deputy who showed up found nothing amiss, said Sgt. Patrick Downing, spokesman for the Coos Bay Sheriff's Office.
The caregiver, 52, called back early Wednesday, reporting the same thing. This time the deputy who responded figured something was wrong and arranged to have another deputy with a more suitable vehicle take the caregiver to Coos Bay Hospital on a mental health hold, Downing said.
Not long after the two deputies reported feeling nauseous, light-headed and euphoric. The elderly woman also came down with symptoms.
Everyone was hospitalized.
A haz-mat team checked the house but found nothing suspicious...

Fentanyl patches are suspected with contact spread.

 

[Emily]

http://www.sciencealert.com/a-hospit...hallucinations

A hospital ward has been quarantined after 5 people fall ill with mysterious hallucinations
Stranger things.


FIONA MACDONALD
18 OCT 2016

... A Haz Mat team was deployed to both the hospital and the caregiver's residence, while the emergency room was emptied and quarantined to check for the source of the unidentified illness. Experts have so far been unable to locate a common source of contamination.
Blood tests of the affected patients also haven't turned up anything unusual.
Initially, police though that the hallucinations could have been caused by narcotic fentanyl patches, which are prescribed for chronic pain, and were worn by the caregiver's 78-year-old patient.
But they've since ruled that explanation out...

... All patients have now been treated, released home, and have reportedly recovered - although the hospital worker is displaying some flu-like symptoms. The quarantine has also been lifted from the hospital.
But the investigation into the source of the hallucinations is ongoing, with police saying that the only thing they suspect for sure is that the illness was spread by direct contact....

 

[Emily]

http://kcby.com/news/local/coos-sher...-in-north-bend
Coos Sheriff suspends investigation into recent hazmat situation in North Bend

By KCBY Wednesday, October 26th 2016

NORTH BEND, Ore. -- Coos County Sheriff's Office has suspended its investigation into a recent hazmat situation in North Bend.
...
Deputies say they spent a couple of hours investigating the scene and did not get sick, and say they didn't find anything criminal they could ascertain...

It still seems strange about the hospital worker. There is no follow-up on that one and it's early for the flu if they mean influenza rather than a stomach bug.

This is from Oct. 12th:
http://kcby.com/news/local/unknown-i...in-coos-county

The hospital worker "as found to have been recently exposed to the flu and continues to display flu like symptoms and is being monitored," Downing wrote.

The original case was found to be competent, so maybe she did see vandals. But then everyone else got sick after they had been evaluated at the hospital. Maybe that was the source of the problems.