- A woman who developed a mysterious and dangerous lung
condition believes it was caused by a daily dip in her home hot tub.
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- A bacterium in the fine spray from the tub at the end
of Jean Winfrey's enclosed swimming pool is thought to have given her "hot
tub lung".
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- Mrs Winfrey may be the first woman in the country to
suffer from the condition and her family is waiting for laboratory confirmation
that micobacterium avium is present in her spa.
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- Mrs Winfrey, 72, says she can feel the difference after
giving up the tub six weeks ago because she became so ill. "I don't
take any drugs, I do not need oxygen at night and my friends tell me how
well I look. I can bicycle again for 20 minutes and I can walk further.
I want other people to know about this. It is the most fantastic discovery,"
she said.
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- The revelation was down to her daughter-in-law, Claire
Winfrey, who is medically qualified and a former GP.
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- Mrs Winfrey snr who lives near Peterborough, Cambs, began
to feel ill about two years ago and her health got steadily worse until
six weeks ago when, unable to sleep, she needed oxygen at night and was
admitted to hospital.
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- Her doctors suspected a heart condition, but after many
tests she was given a lung biopsy and received the results three weeks
ago.
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- She was given a diagnosis of granulomatus pneumonitis
possibly caused by sarcoid. Granulomatus describes abnormalities in the
tissues, in this case in the lungs. Sarcoid or sarcoidosis is an inflammatory
condition, the cause of which is not known but which is probably some kind
of allergic response or response to an unknown infection.
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- Claire Winfrey, who knew that sarcoid in the lungs was
serious and could be fatal, was looking up granulomatus on the internet
when she "bumped into" hot tub lung. She sent print-outs to Mrs
Winfrey's consultant who urged his patient to stay out of the hot tub.
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- Claire Winfrey said: "This is a miracle. She had
two years of hell. She has now not been in the hot tub for six weeks and
is already so much better. A complete recovery is expected to take six
months."
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- The British Lung Foundation said it was not aware of
hot tub lung but the condition merited investigation. Dr Mark Britton,
a chest physician at St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey, said sarcoid
could be caused by a number of bacteria, of which micobacteria avium was
one.
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- "This is fascinating. It would be wrong to imagine
that this is the cause of all sarcoid but it may be more common than we
have appreciated. Patients who use hot tubs should tell their doctors,
and doctors should ask," he said. Sarcoid affects about 600,000 people
in Britain, about one per cent of the population.
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- It can affect any part of the body, but is uncommon in
young people and rare in children.
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- In the lungs the main symptom is usually breathlessness.
In most cases the condition clears up, but sometimes it persists and can
cause permanent damage.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.?x
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