WASHINGTON — Almost a decade after the syndrome was first reported, doctors still do not know the causes of a rare affliction that kills young male Southeast Asian refugees as they sleep.
In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control began tracking a mysterious rash of sudden unexplained nocturnal deaths occurring in apparently healthy, male immigrants from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The problem, unknown in other ethnic groups, has now claimed more than 104 men, averaging 33 years of age, and one woman, according to Dr. Gib Parrish, a CDC medical epidemiologist.
Ninety-eight percent of the deaths occurred between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
26 Deaths in Peak Year
In 1981, the peak year of these deaths, 26 men, often Hmong refugees from the highlands of northern Laos, died in their sleep.
Usually victims were simply found dead, but when medics arrived quickly, the men's hearts were fibrillating or contracting wildly, a symptom Parrish said may result from numerous possible causes.