New Deadly Fungus Found in U.S., Has Already Killed Six

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New Deadly Fungus Found in U.S., Has Already Killed Six

 

 

 

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:34:28 -0400

 

 

 

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New Deadly Fungus Found in U.S., Has Already Killed Six

Infections from a new strain are unpreventable—and

the strain is spreading.

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100421-new-fungus-cryptococcus-gattii-deadly-health-science/

 

 

Christine Dell'Amore

National Geographic News

Published April 22, 2010

A new strain of hypervirulent, deadly fungus has been

discovered in the United

States, a new study says.

The outbreak has already killed six people in Oregon,

and it will likely creep into northern California

and possibly farther, experts say.

 

The new strain is of the species Cryptococcus gattii, an

airborne fungus native to tropical and subtropical regions, including Papua

New Guinea, Australia,

and parts of South

America. An older strain of the fungus was frst detected in North

America in British

Columbia, Canada,

in 1999.

No one knows how the species got to North

America or how the fungus can thrive in a temperate region, experts

say.

"The alarming thing is that it's occurring in this region, it's

affecting healthy people, and geographically it's been expanding," said

study co-author Edmond

Byrnes, a graduate student at the Joseph Heitman

Lab at Duke University.

 

 

Less common than bacterial and viral infections, fungal diseases

usually strike people with weakened immune systems—part of what makes

the recent deaths of otherwise healthy people in Oregon so worrisome.

 

 

People can become infected with Cryptococcus gattii by

inhaling the microscopic organisms—and there's not much you can do

about it.

There's no vaccination or other preventative measure available for

the new strain, though the infection can be treated with antibiotics,

the study says. And "there are no particular precautions that can be

taken to avoid Cryptococcosis," according to the British Columbia Centre for

Disease Control. "You can, however, be alert for long lasting or

severe symptoms and consult a physician (or veterinarian for animals)

for early diagnosis and treatment."

 

 

Appearing several months after exposure to the fungus, the

infection causes a bad cough and shortness of breath, among other

symptoms.

On a positive note, fungal infections, unlike viruses, can't be

passed from person to person.

(See pictures

of a new species of glowing fungi.)

 

 

 

Fast-Spreading Superfungi

The first U.S. Cryptococcus gattii cases were identified

in 2005. It wasn't until the new study, though, that genetic analysis

revealed that the fungus is a new strain that had originated in Oregon.

Of the 21 known cases involving the new strain, 6 have been

fatal—about 25 percent. The new strain has so far been deadlier than

the strain in British Columbia, which killed 19 out of 218 known

victims, or 8.7 percent.

The organism has also attacked domestic and wild animals,

according to the study, published April 22 in the journal PLoS

Pathogens.

Though the reason for the new strain's severity is unknown, "one

thing fungi do that bacteria don't is they have sex with each other,"

Byrnes noted. (Related: "Rainmaking

Bacteria Ride Clouds to 'Colonize' Earth?")

As with humans, nearly every fungus offspring represents a new

combination of genes and their resulting traits. So it's possible that

the new fast-spreading superfungi is the result of Cryptococcus

gattii mating. (Learn more about human

diseases.)

No matter how it arose, the tropical interloper looks like "it's going

to stick around," Byrnes said, "at least for the foreseeable future."