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Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/story/4006213p-4620383c.html

Ten more cases of fungal infection
16 Manitobans now have blastomycosis

Tue Jul 17 2007

By Jen Skerritt

TEN more Manitobans have been infected with the rare and potentially fatal fungal infection blastomycosis, public health officials confirmed Friday.

The new cases bring the total number of Manitobans infected with it this year to 16. Last year, a total of eight cases were reported.

Blastomycosis is an airborne fungal infection that is spread by inhaling spores from infected soil or rotting wood. The fungus first appears as a boil or grows in the lungs, but if left untreated, can spread to the kidneys, prostate, bones and in severe cases, the brain.

Dr. Michael Routledge, provincial medical officer of health, said he suspects the number of cases of blastomycosis is not unusual for this time of year. He said the province first began tracking the disease last September and doesn't have a lot of statistical information about it yet, including whether there have been any deaths.

Routledge said 11 people who were infected live in Winnipeg and the other five cases were from rural Manitoba.

However, he said the province doesn't know where the 16 people first became infected with blastomycosis or the severity of the cases.
   
Areas around Lake of the Woods, including Kenora, are considered a worldwide hot spot for the disease because of the acidic soil. Routledge said the disease is also common along the Mississippi River.

He warns anyone who spends summers in the Lake of the Woods area should be on alert if they come down with a persistent chest infection. The disease is hard to diagnose and most doctors have never seen a case of it before.

"The hardest part about blastomycosis is a diagnosis," Routledge said, noting the beginning stages of the disease mimic a chest infection like pneumonia.

"It can be a pretty serious disease."

Last year, an 11-year-old Winnipeg boy had reconstructive surgery after a blastomycosis infection he picked up at his family's Lake of the Woods cabin ate away at part of his skull.

In 2003, a Kenora man had surgery to remove a blastomycosis growth on part of his face and two pear-sized growths inside his lungs.

Routledge said people infected with blastomycosis can't pass the disease along to other people, and can wear masks, gloves and wash their hands when digging or working near soil in cottage country to protect themselves from inhaling blastomycosis spores.