Possibly fatal fungus moves to B.C. mainland

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Possibly fatal fungus moves to B.C. mainland

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

VANCOUVER, B.C. - A fungus blamed for 129 infections and four deaths

of humans since it was found on the east coast of Vancouver Island

in 1999 has reached the mainland, health officials say.

New cases of tropical cryptococcus gattii fungus have been found in

three people and six domestic animals in the Vancouver area and the

Fraser Valley east of the city, according to a statement issued

Thursday by the British Columbia Center for Disease Control.

CRYPTOCOCCUS GATTII

Occurs naturally on trees and in the soil. The disease can be

acquired only by inhaling fungal spores that are present in the air.

It cannot be transmitted from person to person or from animals to

people.

Symptoms in humans: Cough that lasts for weeks or months, sharp

chest pain, unexplained shortness of breath, weight loss,

undiagnosed fever, night sweats and severe headaches.

Symptoms in animals: Runny noses, lumps under the skin.

None of those affected had been on the island, and the agency has

issued an advisory to doctors and veterinarians, epidemiologist

MacDougall said.

Most of the time exposure results in neither symptoms nor illness,

but infection occasionally leads to disease of the lungs or the

nervous system in both humans and animals. The ailments are usually

treatable with antifungal medication but in rare cases can be fatal.

Dr. Eleni Galanis, another epidemiologist with the provincial

agency, said the risk of developing cryptococcal disease from

inhaling the spores remains very low.

" At some point in their lifetime most people are likely to breathe

in the fungal spores but will not develop an infection, " Galanis

said.

She said people shouldn't change their behavior because of the

fungus.