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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/source-fungal-infection-outbreak-mystery-cdc-says-121257953.html
Source of Fungal Infection Outbreak a Mystery, CDC Says
LiveScience.comBy Cari Nierenberg, LiveScience Contributor | LiveScience.com ? 2 hrs 44 mins ago
In the largest outbreak ever reported in the U.S. of blastomycosis, a fungal infection with flulike symptoms, 55 people in central Wisconsin became sick in 2010.
The fungus that causes blastomycosis is commonly found in soil, but exactly what triggered the spike in cases in Marathon County remains a mystery, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Wisconsin health officials.
Unlike a blastomycosis outbreak in a neighboring Wisconsin county in 2006, in which a pile of waste in a large yard was the likely source, the culprit in this episode remains elusive.
"We didn't find evidence for a single source in the environment that could explain all the cases," said Kaitlin Benedict, an epidemiologist with the CDC's Mycotic Diseases Branch, who was involved in the research. "We think there were probably multiple 'hot spots' for the fungus in several different neighborhoods."
It's also unclear why infection rates among Asians, particularly those of Hmong descent, were about 12 times higher than non-Asians, the report said...
Source of Fungal Infection Outbreak a Mystery, CDC Says
LiveScience.comBy Cari Nierenberg, LiveScience Contributor | LiveScience.com ? 2 hrs 44 mins ago
In the largest outbreak ever reported in the U.S. of blastomycosis, a fungal infection with flulike symptoms, 55 people in central Wisconsin became sick in 2010.
The fungus that causes blastomycosis is commonly found in soil, but exactly what triggered the spike in cases in Marathon County remains a mystery, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Wisconsin health officials.
Unlike a blastomycosis outbreak in a neighboring Wisconsin county in 2006, in which a pile of waste in a large yard was the likely source, the culprit in this episode remains elusive.
"We didn't find evidence for a single source in the environment that could explain all the cases," said Kaitlin Benedict, an epidemiologist with the CDC's Mycotic Diseases Branch, who was involved in the research. "We think there were probably multiple 'hot spots' for the fungus in several different neighborhoods."
It's also unclear why infection rates among Asians, particularly those of Hmong descent, were about 12 times higher than non-Asians, the report said...