journey on
New member
My Tumwater daughter sent this a month or so back. Has anybody heard of it? Any comments? I plan to visit the islands west coast (by boat,) but not with the risk of this. Heres one for Dr. Bob
Sometimes -lethal fungus found on Canada's W. Coast
By Carolyn Abraham
TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
A tropical and potentially lethal fungus that has mysteriously made a home on Canada's temperate West Coast has prompted foreign medical experts to issue a worldwide alert to doctors and tourists.
The warning comes after a 51-year-old Danish visitor contracted the rare and life-threatening fungal infection on Vancouver Island. In the, January issue of the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, published monthly by- the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors in Denmark - who eventually found clumps of the fungus growing in the man's chest - have cited the island as a potential health risk to travelers.
Cryptococcus gattii, a microscopic pathogen normally found in tropical or subtropical locales in Australia, Africa, India or South America, was first identified on Vancouver Island in 2001. Many suspect that global warming
has recently enabled the one celled organism to thrive in the trees, soil, water and air along the island's east coast.
While chances of contracting C, gattii remain low, the airborne cells and spores can lodge deep in the lungs, leading to pneumonia. The fungus can also attack the central nervous system and result in meningitis. As of December 2006, 165 people had been infected and eight have died.
Animals, household pets in particular, have been hardest hit. But the corpses of infected porpoises have also washed ashore, making this one of the world's few, true multispecies outbreaks.
Human cases have emerged on the British Columbia mainland, Oregon and Washington state. "We are now up to 33 cases per million. We surpass any other place in the world," said Dr. Pamela Kibsey, medical director of microbiology at the Vancouver Island Health Authority.
Boris
Sometimes -lethal fungus found on Canada's W. Coast
By Carolyn Abraham
TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
A tropical and potentially lethal fungus that has mysteriously made a home on Canada's temperate West Coast has prompted foreign medical experts to issue a worldwide alert to doctors and tourists.
The warning comes after a 51-year-old Danish visitor contracted the rare and life-threatening fungal infection on Vancouver Island. In the, January issue of the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, published monthly by- the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors in Denmark - who eventually found clumps of the fungus growing in the man's chest - have cited the island as a potential health risk to travelers.
Cryptococcus gattii, a microscopic pathogen normally found in tropical or subtropical locales in Australia, Africa, India or South America, was first identified on Vancouver Island in 2001. Many suspect that global warming
has recently enabled the one celled organism to thrive in the trees, soil, water and air along the island's east coast.
While chances of contracting C, gattii remain low, the airborne cells and spores can lodge deep in the lungs, leading to pneumonia. The fungus can also attack the central nervous system and result in meningitis. As of December 2006, 165 people had been infected and eight have died.
Animals, household pets in particular, have been hardest hit. But the corpses of infected porpoises have also washed ashore, making this one of the world's few, true multispecies outbreaks.
Human cases have emerged on the British Columbia mainland, Oregon and Washington state. "We are now up to 33 cases per million. We surpass any other place in the world," said Dr. Pamela Kibsey, medical director of microbiology at the Vancouver Island Health Authority.
Boris