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In text messages addressed to loved ones, a Texan couple taking part in a dream trip to Fiji complained of being violently ill, but did not reveal any concerns about the fear of the disease. mysterious that afflicted them.
Michelle and David Paul died two days apart after arriving in Fiji on May 22 and became seriously ill soon after.
Fiji's Ministry of Health is working with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to determine the disease that has killed two apparently healthy people.
Text messages obtained by ABC News from parents helped to better understand the deterioration of the couple's living conditions and the treatment offered by doctors at a local clinic.
Handout via WFAA
"We're both going to the doctor now," Michelle Paul, 35, texted her parents, who live in Nevada shortly after she arrived in Fiji with her husband. "We've been vomiting since 8 am Dave has diarrhea, my hands are numb, we'll send text messages as soon as we can."
After returning to their hotel, Michelle Paul wrote another message to her mother, Juliet Calanog, to inform her of the latest news about treatments received at the clinic.
"We just got back from the clinic and gave us fluids and anti-nausea drops," wrote Michelle Paul. "They gave us electrolyte sachets and anti-nausea pills, we still do not feel 100%, we will rest in our room."
Juliet Calanog responded by advising her daughter, in a text, to "slow down".
"Take care of yourself," she wrote. "Drink a lot of liquid bottled water, you have to rest."
But the treatments received by the couple did not work.
Michelle Paul died on May 25 and her 37-year-old husband died two days later.
The Ministry of Health in Fiji said that an investigation into the cause of death was under way.
"The flu has been ruled out and, at this point, we do not think there is a risk to the public," said Fiji's health ministry in a statement released on Tuesday. "It would be premature to speculate further on the cause of death before the end of the investigation."
Handout via WFAA
Five people, including the medical staff who came into close contact with the couple at the clinic where they were treated and died, were quarantined and monitored in a hospital Nadi, Fiji, as a precautionary measure.
The Ministry of Health said that the people under observation are all "currently in good health".
Medical staff at Nadi hospital told ABC News that relatives of the five people being monitored are not allowed to visit them.
A spokesman for the World Health Organization, or WHO, said in a statement that the agency "provides access to laboratories and other technical services in Australia" to badyze specimens collected during autopsies of Michelle and David Paul.
"We are working closely with the ministry, the CDC and our partners," says the statement from the WHO.
A spokeswoman for the Fiji Ministry of Health only confirmed to ABC News that the couple's blood samples had been sent to a foreign laboratory for testing and that the results could come back as soon as this week.
"I'm stuck in a nightmare," said Rebecca Ward, David Paul's sister, in an interview with "Good Morning America" on ABC on Wednesday. "You think you are going to have an answer today and you get a call that they do not know."
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