Potentially deadly fungus spreading in U.S. and Canada

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L66H20100422?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r2:c0.136808:b33253448:z0


A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday.


The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said.

"This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people," said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

"The findings presented here document that the outbreak of C. gattii in Western North America is continuing to expand throughout this temperate region," the researchers said in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens here

"Our findings suggest further expansion into neighboring regions is likely to occur and aim to increase disease awareness in the region."

The new strain appears to be unusually deadly, with a mortality rate of about 25 percent among the 21 U.S. cases analyzed, they said.

-snip-

The spore-forming fungus can cause symptoms in people and animals two weeks or more after exposure. They include a cough that lasts for weeks, sharp chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss.

It has also turned up in cats, dogs, an alpaca and a sheep.

Freezing can kill the fungus and climate change may be helping it spread, the researchers said.
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cripe

Mother Nature won't mind... :eyes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8237179

The ramifications of global climate change are only beginning to be recognized.

Bat killing fungus in the northeast, and a different human/animal killing fungus in the northwest.

:scared:

nt

I see.

give me information about something that could affect my health. Why don't you want people to be informed?

Why? Because that 'negative' info is usually tinged w/the ever dreaded notion that various people, and the powerful orgs they're beholden to, are potentially engaged in some degree of collusion/wrong doing, and that particular concept is 100% pure anathema for a large extent of the politically indoctrinated class. I suspect many Dems have a greater 'problem' w/conspiracy theorists in general than they do actual conservative minded people.

the flu deaths last season by 18%?

That boogeyman?

I see.

But go ahead and distort the facts.

According to the CDC website, H1N1 is responsible for approximately 12,000 deaths in the US alone. With seasonal flu killing an average of 36,000/yr, even if the seasonal flu was less virulent than normal (something NOBODY knows yet, as the season is only now ending and they won't have the stats for six months) it is not unreasonable to expect that this flu season, with seasonal and H1N1 combined, has killed between 40-45 thousand people in the US.

You can't 'distort the facts' when the facts have not been tabulated - but there is no reason to doubt the estimates.

Unless, of course, YOU didn't get the flu this season which means it is all hysteria.

(edit for typo)

health risks since I have a very serious immune deficiency. Knowledge is power.