A new, deadly fungus, Cryptococcus gattii, has already killed six Americans, in Oregon:
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. [...] On a positive note, fungal infections, unlike viruses, can’t be passed from person to person.
The study appears in PLoS Pathogens.