From: Ian A. York
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Flu or Coxsackie B cold virus destroys young woman's heart
Date: 6 Mar 1998 19:24:33 -0500

In article <6dpq7e$p16$1@news.fsc.fujitsu.com>,
Susan Johnson <susanj@nms.fnc.fujitsu.com> wrote:
>Just this week, a 35-year-old mother of three in
>Vancouver Canada died after her heart was destroyed
>while fighting off either influenza or the
>Coxsackie B cold virus.
 [ ... ]
>I was wondering how often this occurs, and if

Viral myocarditis is surprisingly common.  At least, I was surprised when
I heard the stats a few weeks ago.  From my notes (the talk was on
coxsackie myocarditis) there are some 1 million cases of viral myocarditis
per year in the USA (and presumably around 100,000 in Canada, assuming the
usual 10:1 US:Canada ratio), of which 90% are asymptomatic, leaving around
100,000 symptomatic cases per year.  These include young, healthy people.
One of the symptoms is death with no warning;  spontaneous recovery is
more common, but around 10% go on to have chronic problems.  Diagnosis is
difficult, and many cases are probably misdiagnosed.

The above is for 'normal' people; I don't see anything specifically on
transplant recipients, but I would assume that (as with most infectious
diseases) transplant recipients are more susceptible because they're
immune suppressed.

Ian
--
    Ian York   (iayork@panix.com)  <http://www.panix.com/~iayork/>
    "-but as he was a York, I am rather inclined to suppose him a
     very respectable Man." -Jane Austen, The History of England