Date: Fri 14-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Kilchevski-health-tick-borne

Full Text:

Tick-Borne Disease Discovery: Local Physician Breaks New Medical Ground

(with photo)

BY STEVE BIGHAM

Newtown resident and physician Eitan Kilchevsky made the news this past week

-- in the August 6th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. His

landmark medical discovery nearly a year ago is now being circulated to

doctors worldwide.

Last October, Dr Kilchevsky and a handful of other neonatologists at Danbury

Hospital came across a medical first when they found that the tick-borne

disease known as human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) had been passed from

mother to fetus. The diagnosis enabled the team of doctors to treat the baby,

who made a recovery within 24 hours.

It all started October 4, 1997, when Linda Gengo gave birth to Emma at Port

Chester United Hospital in New York. Mrs Gengo had developed a high fever at

the time of the delivery and, since she had found two ticks on her body the

week before, believed she may have had Lyme Disease. She knew the symptoms,

having contracted the tick-borne disease back in 1987.

With her fever rising to 105 degrees the day after the delivery, doctors in

New York finally agreed to take tests and found she had HGE, a treatable,

though sometimes fatal, tick disease, that causes headaches, chronic fatigue,

heart and nerve damage, and memory loss. She was treated with antibiotics and

sent home. Little Emma was never tested.

Two days later, the baby, back home in Ridgefield, came down with a fever of

104 degrees and other non-specific symptoms. The family doctor in Ridgefield

recommended the baby be taken to Danbury Hospital. It was there that Dr

Kilchevsky and Dr Edward James, chief of neonatology, became involved.

"My initial suspicion was that it was a routine infection since we had never

seen ehrlichiosis in babies," said Dr Kilchevsky, who hails from Israel and

now lives with his family on Equestrian Ridge Road.

Nevertheless, Dr Kilchevsky took a blood count from the less-than-two-week-old

baby and brought the specimen to the laboratory himself. It was there, looking

into a microscope, that Dr Kilchevsky found the bacteria in white blood cells

-- a clear case of HGE.

"Initially, I did not believe it," the doctor admitted this week. However,

after further analysis the proof was in the microscope.

But the doctor's work was not over yet. He had to treat the young child. The

disease can be fatal in elderly people and, since babies also have

weaker-than-normal immune systems, Dr Kilchevsky feared the same threat

applied to little Emma.

With no manual on how to treat the child, doctors had to wing it a bit. Too

many antibiotics would not be good, so they adjusted the dosage. Emma's fever

broke within 24 hours.

Doctors suspect the disease was passed on to Emma while she was still in the

womb, though it could have been passed on during the birth.

Nine months later, Emma is reportedly doing fine, according to Dr Kilchevsky,

who was scheduled to see the young girl this week.

Dr Kilchevsky called his discovery one of the most important he has made

during his career as a physician, but pointed out that more work needs to be

done. These days, he is spending his time on the issues of breast feeding and

child abuse, trying to help children live happier, more healthy lives.

A former captain in the Israeli army, Dr Kilchevsky met his wife Laurie in

Jerusalem. The couple has two children, Ami, a junior at Newtown High School,

and Raquesett, an NHS freshman.