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Two Okinawa Marines die from blood diseaseBy Jim LeaStripes Okinawa Bureau ChiefCAMP FOSTER, Japan — Two Okinawa-based U.S. Marines died of a blood disease they apparently contracted during a military training exercise in South Korea.A Marine Corps public affairs spokesman said Lance Cpl. Sean V. Lopez, 18, of Ojai, Calif., died of hemorrhagic fever Nov. 7, and Gunnery Sgt. Stanley E. Elliot, 35, of Quantico, Va., died of the disease Dec. 2. They apparently contracted the disease while engaged in the U.S. military training exercise Operation Bear Hunt.Both were assigned to the 9th Engineer Support Battalion, the spokesman said.A spokesman for the 5th Preventative Medicine Unit in Seoul said Lopez died at the 121st Evacuation Hospital there. The Marine spokesman said Elliot died at the U.S. Air Force hospital at Clark AB in the Philippines.THE SPOKESMAN said four other Marines from Okinawa are hospitalized with the disease, but he did not know where they were being treated. He said a fifth Marine was treated earlier and has been released.Dr. (Maj.) Ricardo Davila, commander of the 5th Preventative Medicine Unit in Seoul, said hemorrhagic fever is a disease that causes both the kidneys and the body’s blood-clotting mechanism to fail. Patients usually die from shock caused by internal bleeding, he said.DAVILA SAID the peak period for the disease is October through November, and it is most prevalent in areas near the Demilitarized Zone in Korea. The annual Bear Hunt exercise is held in October and November, near the DMZ.In that area, Davila said, the disease is carried by the common field mouse. The virus is contained in the rodents’ excrement, but the virus becomes airborne when the excrement dries. The disease is passed from rodents to humans, but cannot be passed between humans, he said.Davila said there have been eight cases of the disease among Americans in Korea so far this year: Lopez, Elliot, five U.S. soldiers and an Air Force dependent.Lopez and Elliot are the only two of the eight who have died, he said, adding that the fatality rate for the fever is about 5 percent.
Newspaper Details
Pacific Stars and Stripes
Tokyo, Tôkyô, JP
Sun, Dec 14, 1986
Page 29
Full Page
Clipped by
Benjamin H.
USA 28 Apr 2025
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