Reuters reports doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital revealed in the New England Journal of Medicine the case of a 17-year-old girl from Indonesia who was 2.5 kilometers inland when a wave from the Dec. 26 tsunami swept her up and carried her another kilometer.
Two days later she developed a cough, followed by headache, nausea and vomiting. She was treated for pneumonia but after another week developed a weakness on the right side of her body, which progressed to paralysis.
The teen turned out to have a brain abscess caused by the same infection that had first attacked her lungs. After intensive treatment with antibiotics, she recovered and was able to walk.
Her case was rare among tsunami survivors, said Tjandra Yoga Aditama, a senior lung doctor who served in a government team that reopened hospitals in Aceh where the tsunami left more than 160,000 killed or missing. He added pneumonia was a major problem amongst tsunami survivors.
U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) officials agreed the case reported in the journal was likely to be rare.
In Thailand, a team of doctors at Bangkok's Rajavithi hospital reported that after the Dec. 26 disaster they had to treat lung problems in dozens of patients who inhaled salt water contaminated by bacteria often found in the soil.
A few patients went on to develop severe pneumonia - all had to be treated with antibiotics.
