you hear about a lot of viruses, avian flu, nipa virus. ev-71 as far as they can tell had not been in cambodia before for sure. why does it appear like this and with such a vengeance? >> it looks like this has emerged strongly probably because it had not circulated to the same -- with the same intensity in the past years. >> it's believed that a slight variation in the ev71 made the virus stronger, and the steroids made the body's resistance even weaker. so case closed. it sounds like the case is closed now from your standpoint. >> yes. i think we can -- we can close the case. >> so here's the bottom line -- the worst case fears did not come true. this is not a highly contagious, deadly virus that's about to spread around the world. but these are terrible diseases. they're still a major threat to children in cambodia and all of southeast asia. for the time being, the w.h.o. has told health care workers to stop using steroids in patients with these infections. and of course, reminding them to prevent transmission. hand to mouth is still the

and by way of background, this is the part of the world that gave us sars, nipa virus, the deadly birdt almost every new strain of influenza over the years. as we heard of a deadly new disease, we paid attention. it started with this diligent doctor noticing something unusual -- young patients were coming into his hospital and dying very quickly, within 24 hours. he wrote a letter of warning describing a terrifying picture -- a disease that he'd never seen before that was nearly 100% lethal. so we decided to go to the hospital in the center of the city. >> the majority of these cases, mostly under the age of 3, were seriously ill. and many of them had died within 24 hours of admission. >> that's frightening, i think, for people to hear. >> absolutely. >> there's a lot of diseases in this part of the world. many parts of the world. but that kill that quickly -- the backdrop is important here. the hospital treats thousands of children suffering from dang a fever, malaria, and tuberculosis every week. and remember, this is a part of the world where bird flu

this is a part of the world where sars originated, why h5n1 avian flu only nated, where nipa virus isother parts of the world. doctors have to exclude those things. it is a process and conditions pretty tough and overcrowded, carol. >> to the final question, when we say kids, how old are we talking about? >> the average able was pretty young, younger than 5. somewhere between 3 and 5 years of age but as young as 3 months and as old as 11. for some reason, it is all children, no adults seem to have been affected by this. i talked to doctors, the kids may have a more severe form of the problem but doctors have a mild and they are not checking back. >> sanjay gupta live from cambodia this morning. >>> your talk back responses next. now you can apply sunblock to your kids' wet skin. neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®. do you have any idea where you're going ? wherever the wind takes me. this is so off course. nature can surprise you s

first n this case, there's a different pathogens, viruses, such as h5n1 which causes avian flu, the nipaus, sars what they have beenbeen testing for the past few weeks. they have been searching for ener row virus 71. out of the 66 patients you mentioned, 64 of whom died, they tested this in 24 patients that is the number of samples they still had. marn patients died with within 24 hours of admission. they came in with a fever and develop ensive light 'tis, inflammation of the brain. what is strange about this and has door wondering is their lungs would be profoundly affected after that, to the point where doctors described to me that their lungs were completely destroyed. not all of that fits with s with not all of that fits with s wi row virus 71. there are questions that remain to be answered. >> because we are on a delay, i'm going to give you both -- give you both of the questions at once. can you tell me about how contagious, if it's con tablup at all, this is and also how difficult is it to separate this disease from anything else that a child or adult may come in with, say like de

we should start by looking at nipa.gencies face a tremendous workload of our early bird and some analysis and other regulations. they plan, study, get sued, plan and study for months and even years on and creating backlogs and pilot. extreme anti logging and anti grazing environmental groups which in the wings to file suit up procedural points like missed deadlines often times collecting attorneys' fees. in doing so they ad agency were close and further worsen the backlog. the result is tremendous economic uncertainty. the forest service estimates a current backlog of 2600 grazing allotments. i have personally been involved in an age your process to renew a simple 505 head permit. we should also take a look at another environmental law that has added greatly to the problem while fire poses a huge threat to many species, yet esa is often used to let activities such as timber harvesting and grazing. the very activities that should be used to reduce fuel load and diminish the threat to wildlife. the spotted owl has all but