Mystery illness strikes UK troops

British marines are on active duty in Afghanistan

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Eighteen Army medical personnel serving with the British forces in Afghanistan have been taken ill with a mysterious contagious illness.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London told CNN on Wednesday that two personnel were "very seriously ill" with the feverish bug.

One has been flown back to the UK and the other is being taken to a U.S. hospital in Germany. Next of kin are being informed.

All 18 were working at the 34 Field Hospital at the Bagram airbase which has now been closed as a precautionary measure.

The British forces spokesman at Bagram, Lieutenant Colonel Ben Curry, acknowledged it was a "serious situation".

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Britain's Ministry of Defence has categorically ruled out any link to possible chemical weapons.

The MoD statement said: "Symptoms include a fever, diarrhoea and vomiting. Two are very seriously ill. One has been returned to the UK for treatment, and the other is being evacuated to a US hospital in Germany. The others are being cared for by the remaining medical staff at Bagram.

"The exact nature is not yet known and medical tests continue to be conducted to identify the cause."

Brigadier Roger Lane told reporters that the illness, which surfaced three days ago with bouts of vomiting and diarrhea, appeared contagious.

As a result, all 350 personnel working at 34 field hospital have been quarantined.

"We believe it is some kind of enteric fever, but we are yet to establish that," Lane said.

"It has feverish symptoms, some of which have been described a bit like meningitis, but we believe that not to be the case."

The remaining staff at the hospital were also continuing to care for the 16 people struck down with the disease who have not been evacuated.

Lieutenant Col. Curry added: "It is a setback but it will not affect our military planning for future operations," the told reporters.

He said the illness was "akin to gastroenteritis" and described how it had spread through the field hospital.

"The first reported case was three days ago. Yesterday we had six, this morning we had 11, by this evening we had 18. Clearly it is a serious situation," he said.

Britain has some 1,700 Royal Marines in Afghanistan.

None of the other coalition troops, including from the United States and Canada, have reported any illness.