Posted on: Saturday, December 4, 2004
Flood infection put professor in hospital
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By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
When the Manoa flood ripped through professor Terrence Lyttle's lab, the storm water wiped out a big chunk of 35 years of genetic research — his life's work.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser As he waded through the wreckage, he contracted leptospirosis, a sometimes fatal illness that eventually left him with a 104-degree fever, cost him 20 pounds and put him in the hospital for three nights.
Now he's recovering well, picking through what's left of his data at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa but still a little shaky.
"It's pretty overwhelming," Lyttle said in an Advertiser interview. "The more time I have, the more I realize what's gone. I don't think I've fully come to grips with what I have lost."
But Lyttle, 56, also knows he's fortunate that he and his doctors watched for leptospirosis because of his exposure to the floodwater and mud from the Oct. 30 flood.
Advertiser library photo "Don't think that you're safe just because you don't have all the classical symptoms of a disease," he said.
Lyttle said that after 30 years in Hawai'i, he has known about the risk of leptospirosis for a long time. But he felt he had no choice but to wade into his flooded office for about an hour that night and three more hours the next day.
Leptospirosis is linked to bacteria common in streams statewide and found in any water or mud exposed to animal urine. While leptospirosis is a constant threat, the state averages only about 44 reported cases each year.
An even smaller number end up like Lyttle, as only about 5 percent of people who are exposed to leptospirosis develop a serious infection, said Dr. Kate Gaynor, of the state Health Department's disease investigation branch.
People in Hawai'i commonly get leptospirosis when wading or swimming in streams, ponds and other freshwater sources contaminated by animal urine.
The disease is not transmitted person to person.
Symptoms can include fever, red eyes, nausea, chills, headache, vomiting, diarrhea and body aches. Symptoms can take from three to 30 days to appear after exposure.
To prevent the disease, stay out of fresh water and muddy areas if you have open cuts or blisters. Don't put your head underwater or drink stream water. See a doctor if symptoms arise.
About 500 cases of leptospirosis — including seven deaths — have been reported in Hawai'i in the past decade. Hawai'i averages 44 cases a year and has had 51 reported so far this year as of yesterday.
More cases have been linked to the Waipi'o River on the Big Island than any other single source. The disease also has been traced to Maunawili Stream/Falls, Kapena Falls/Nu'uanu Stream and Kahana Stream on O'ahu; and on Kaua'i, to the Waimea, Wailua and Hanalei rivers.
Source: State Health Department Lyttle said he got sick about 10 days after the flood and suffered a fever that spiked at 104 degrees. But he and his doctors thought he had the flu or a virus because none of the other classic symptoms showed up. "I never developed muscle pain, headaches," he said.
Lyttle went to the emergency room on Nov. 17 after he started having cognitive-sensory problems: "having a hard time keeping two thoughts together" and becoming ultra-sensitive to light and flavors.
"If I hadn't had the cognitive problems, I probably wouldn't have gone to the hospital," he said. "I lost 20 pounds in 10 days."
Looking back, he knows he had to risk the illness to try to save as much of his research as he could.
"If I didn't go back into the lab that night, I felt I had no chance of recovering any of my research organisms," Lyttle said. "I didn't think of it as being as risky as I would have thought of wading in Manoa Stream."
Lyttle, a professor of cell and molecular biology, just happened to be working at his office on the evening of the flood. He specializes in genetic research working with a type of fruit fly called drosophila melanogaster. His building was one of the hardest hit on campus.
The power went out and within minutes, the biomedical sciences lab was under 4› feet of water. "I was lucky that I did get out when I did," he said.
Huge incubators had fallen over and one blocked the door. Lyttle estimated that he lostt two-thirds of his data and teaching materials as well as a lot of equipment.
He said his first blood test showed negative for leptospirosis, but a test done this week — a week later —- came back positive.
"Most people who get infected with leptospirosis recover completely even if they never see a doctor and never take any medication," Gaynor said. "For every positive case, there are probably about four other cases."
Gaynor said the last reported case linked to Manoa Stream was in 1999.
Gaynor said the cognitive problems he was experiencing were related to the disease.
Lyttle was already preparing for big professional changes before the flood.
"I am on sabbatical for the spring term; I'm going off to Italy," he said.
When he returns he'll move to the new medical school complex in Kaka'ako.
"In a sense, the flood took care of some decision-making," he said. "This year is going to be a very new beginning."
But, he said, "it's not the way I imagined saying goodbye to a lab I'd occupied for 29 years."
Lyttle said having no control over these life-changing events has left him feeling somewhat fatalistic.
"I'll just do what I can with what's left."
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
Then it got worse.
UH professor Terrence Lyttle, shown checking specimens in a temporary lab, was hospitalized after getting leptospirosis from wading through floodwater in his old lab. He lost 20 pounds.
Lyttle is one of the rare victims who develop a serious infection from leptospirosis, and the lesson he said he learned could be important in a state where the illness is an ever-present threat.
This is Lyttle's old lab, after being swamped with more than 4 feet of floodwater. Lyttle said he knew of the danger from leptospirosis but felt he had to wade through the water to rescue his specimens.
A Big Island college student, Simon Hultman, died in January on the Mainland from leptospirosis believed to have been contracted during a visit home over the holidays.
Leptospirosis
