After death of a New Jersey convention-goer, more than 80 taken to hospital

By

Posted 8:55AM on Monday, February 11, 2002

CHERRY HILL, N.J. - Health officials scrambled to identify a mysterious illness that killed one woman and sickened seven other convention-goers with a viral, flu-like illness. Joanne Hemstreet, 45, of Kingston, Mass., died early Sunday at Kennedy Memorial Hospitals-Cherry Hill, hours after checking herself into the hospital with a fever, headache, vomiting and shortness of breath. Hemstreet had been attending a national sales convention at the Cherry Hill Hilton with about 500 other employees of Cendant Mortgage. About 80 people who might have had contact with Hemstreet went to the hospital emergency room for evaluation. Officials said Hemstreet's initial flu-like illness worsened to pneumococcal pneumonia, which is not generally contagious. In her weakened condition she also got a secondary infection called purpura fulminans, an overwhelming bacterial infection with about a 70 percent mortality rate. Despite antibiotic treatment and other measures, within four to five hours she developed a rash, her blood pressure plunged and she went into shock. She died at 3:14 a.m. Sunday. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hemstreet family," Cendant President and CEO Terry Edwards said in a statement. "We will do everything to help them through this difficult time." Antibiotics were given to anyone who had close contact with Hemstreet, perhaps by sharing drinking glasses or eating utensils, hospital spokeswoman Nicole Pensiero said. None of the seven people hospitalized -- a man and six women -- were known to be in close contact with Hemstreet during the convention. They developed fevers, chills, sore throat and general weakness, and two have pneumonia. The seven who were hospitalized were given antibiotics, either rifampin or ciprofloxacin, and were admitted for further treatment and observation as a precaution. None were in critical condition. The results of their preliminary culture tests should be available Monday, officials said. Autopsy results for Hemstreet also were expected to be released Monday. Dr. David V. Condoluci, chief of infectious diseases for Kennedy Health System said investigators from the state and county were at the hotel Sunday, interviewing convention guests. The hotel was quarantined for several hours early in the day but the restriction was lifted before noon. Health officials had worried the outbreak was caused by meningococcus, anthrax or Legionnaires' disease, but Condoluci said none of those appear to be the case. Legionnaires' disease, caused by a bacterium that grows in water and can be spread through air-conditioning ducts, takes its name from a July 1976 outbreak that killed 29 people at the Pennsylvania American Legion convention at a hotel in nearby Philadelphia. It causes pneumonia-like symptoms.