Pacific NW may be boo heaven, but...

[Alan_L]

there's this to worry about now:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =126198896

[Robbie78]

Scary!!!!

[ghmerrill]

well, since its a soil borne fungus, Im waiting to hear about outbreaks in areas like St. louis, Indiana, tennesee......

[needmore]

Dial-up kept me from the link, what's the story?

[ghmerrill]

Some soil fungus that has mutated and is extra virulent. The normal form is only dangerous to folks with compromised immune systems, the mutant form attacks healthy people too, and has about a 25% death rate

Fun stuff. If we listened to all the news stories, we would have to live in bubbles to be safe

[Alan_L]

From the article:

A rare and dangerous fungal infection named Cryptococcus gattii has been quietly spreading from British Columbia southward to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. And it's changing as it goes.

Researchers have discovered that a unique strain of the bug has emerged recently in Oregon and already spread widely there, sickening humans and animals.

So far, over the past 11 years there have been about 220 cases reported in British Columbia. Since 2004, doctors in Washington and Oregon have reported about 50 cases. Among the total 270 cases, 40 people have died from overwhelming infections of the lungs and brain.