Fungus From Pacific Northwest Not So Dangerous

Fungus From Pacific Northwest Not So Dangerous.
The strange "killer" fungus spreading through the is department reality but also part hype, experts say. "It's indubitably real in that we've been seeing this fungus in North America since 1999 and it's causing a lot more meningitis than you would look forward in the general population, but this is still a rare disease," said Christina Hull, an helpmeet professor of medical microbiology and immunology and of biomolecular chemistry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison emirates. Cryptococcus gattii, historically a citizen of more tropical climates, was win discovered in North America on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in 1999 and has since made its disposition to Washington state and now, more recently, to Oregon.

So "It's a strain that appears to have come from Australia at some stop and has adapted to living somewhere cooler than usual". From the point of view of sheer numbers, the unknown C gattii hardly seems alarming erection. It infected 218 people on Vancouver Island, fatality close to 9 percent of those infected.

In the United States, the death rebuke has been higher but, again, few people have been infected. "At its peak, we were seeing about 36 cases per million per year, so that is a very puny number". Michael Horseman, an associate professor of drugstore practice at Texas A&M Health Science Center Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy in Kingsville, puts the overall ruin rate in the "upper single digits to the drop teens. It's not quite what I've been reading in the newspapers".

Experts had been concerned because the new fungus seems to have some old-fashioned ripping characteristics, different from those seen in other locales. For one thing, the North American C gattii seemed to be attacking otherwise nourishing people, not those with compromised immune systems, as was the case in the past. But closer inspection reveals that not all in good health individuals are vulnerable.

But "I don't think everybody's susceptible. Most of the populate that have had the disease tend to be older males and they're not necessarily the healthiest guys in the world. A lot of them had liver disease, kidney disease, lung disease. They were perhaps smokers".

And many may have been taking steroids, which would put them at additional risk. Infection commonly starts in the lung resulting in respiratory symptoms such as coughing and, in up to 20 percent of cases, progresses to meningitis, or sore of the membranes lining the brain.

So "If you're essentially younger and you're actually healthy, your danger is pretty low. The risk is also pretty low if you stay in urban areas and aren't digging around in the leavings or hanging around trees for long periods of time". The fungus is found in both trees and soil. The honourable news is that infection is usually treatable with antifungal agents.

And "The treatments are appealing effective for most people. This is something to keep an eye on but in terms of wide-ranging things to be afraid of, this isn't one of them. If I lived in or traveled to the Northwest and developed punishing respiratory symptoms that didn't resolve over time, I'd unquestionably check that out sleeping. I'm going to Vancouver in the fall and, at this point, I'm not too distressed about it".