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Vancouver Island, Canada
Source: flickr/Graham Fair
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A species of fungi capable of causing serious illness in people, which recently appeared in Canada, has spread from Vancouver Island into the country’s mainland and down to the US states of Washington and Oregon, according to reports published recently. So far 258 people have been affected by the outbreak.
Laboratory tests on samples of the fungi collected in the North American region suggest the sub-strain circulating there is more virulent than those seen in tropical areas traditionally hit by the pathogen.
“These findings demonstrate that this emerging and fatal outbreak is continuing to expand,” write Edmond Byrnes, of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, USA, and colleagues in PLoS Pathogens1.
The fungus, Cryptococcus gattii, can infect the lungs and nervous system of people and animals. Although human infections are rare, cases have been seen in tropical and subtropical climates including Australia, India, Papua New Guinea, and southern parts of California state in the USA, which lies within subtropical latitudes.
But in 1999 scientists found that the pathogen was infecting people and animals on the south-eastern coast of Vancouver Island, west of Canada’s British Columbia province. This was the first time the fungus had been seen in an area with a temperate climate. At least 240 people have been affected in the region over the past 10 years.
Writing in Environmental Health Perspectives2 this month, epidemiologists suggest the fungi could spread farther in this region. They say that ecological conditions favouring survival of C. gattii exist on a wider stretch of the islands’ coast than that currently affected by the outbreak, as well as in mainland Vancouver. This area is home to more than two million people.
“If C. gattii does become established in the Vancouver Lower Mainland… we would expect to see 79 cases of Cryptococcus per year,” calculate Sunny Mak, from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, and colleagues.
They came to this conclusion using a computer programme to model environmental conditions in the Canadian province. Data about the location of reported human and animal cases of cryptococcosis in British Columbia were fed into the model, as were the sites where trees, soil, air and water samples had tested positive for the fungus. The researchers also used the software to map the ecology and environment of the region, using data on temperature, rainfall, soil drainage, levels of development, and land elevation, aspect and slope. These factors are thought to be important for the survival of the fungus.
The model predicts that C. gattii could survive within the province on the central and eastern coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the Vancouver Lower Mainland, they say.
With this forecast in mind, the researchers suggest that areas outside Canada are at risk of the fungus too. “[W]e hypothesise that the San Juan Islands and Puget Trough of Washington State and the Willamette Valley of Oregon State [of the USA] will also eventually become endemic areas for C. gattii,” write Mak and colleagues.
At least 40 cases of Cryptococcus in people and animals have already been spotted in Washington and Oregon since 2005. In their study, Byrnes and colleagues collected samples of the fungi from these cases for molecular analysis, and compared the results to the molecular profile of previously genotyped C. gattii collected from people, animals and the environment in other affected areas including Canada, Australia, and South America.
They found that the majority of Cryptococcus cases seen in north-western USA had been caused by the same sub-strain of C. gattii circulating in Canada. This strain appears to be unrelated to strains circulating in the tropical and subtropical parts of the world typically affected by the fungi. But nine cases detected in Oregon were caused by a new sub-strain never reported before anywhere in the world.
Tests in mice and mouse cell lines suggest that the newly emerged Canadian and US sub-strains are more virulent than strains circulating in subtropical and tropical areas, and can cause more severe lung infections, according to the authors.
“The rising incidence of cryptococcosis cases in humans and animals highlights the need for enhanced awareness in the region,” write Byrnes and colleagues. The new virulent fungus may also spread to northern California, they warn, where the climate is similar to that of the temperate parts of Oregon, where the fungi are already found.
Two cases of infection with a subtropical sub-strain of C. gattii have been reported in southern California, and the new virulent strain was also spotted in an environmental sample collected in the San Francisco area in 1990. Doctors and public health officials should be on alert for outbreaks caused by the fungus, say Byrnes and colleagues.
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Vancouver Island, Canada
Source: flickr/Graham Fair
|
|
A species of fungi capable of causing serious illness in people, which recently appeared in Canada, has spread from Vancouver Island into the country’s mainland and down to the US states of Washington and Oregon, according to reports published recently. So far 258 people have been affected by the outbreak.
Laboratory tests on samples of the fungi collected in the North American region suggest the sub-strain circulating there is more virulent than those seen in tropical areas traditionally hit by the pathogen.
“These findings demonstrate that this emerging and fatal outbreak is continuing to expand,” write Edmond Byrnes, of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, USA, and colleagues in PLoS Pathogens1.
The fungus, Cryptococcus gattii, can infect the lungs and nervous system of people and animals. Although human infections are rare, cases have been seen in tropical and subtropical climates including Australia, India, Papua New Guinea, and southern parts of California state in the USA, which lies within subtropical latitudes.
But in 1999 scientists found that the pathogen was infecting people and animals on the south-eastern coast of Vancouver Island, west of Canada’s British Columbia province. This was the first time the fungus had been seen in an area with a temperate climate. At least 240 people have been affected in the region over the past 10 years.
Writing in Environmental Health Perspectives2 this month, epidemiologists suggest the fungi could spread farther in this region. They say that ecological conditions favouring survival of C. gattii exist on a wider stretch of the islands’ coast than that currently affected by the outbreak, as well as in mainland Vancouver. This area is home to more than two million people.
“If C. gattii does become established in the Vancouver Lower Mainland… we would expect to see 79 cases of Cryptococcus per year,” calculate Sunny Mak, from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, and colleagues.
They came to this conclusion using a computer programme to model environmental conditions in the Canadian province. Data about the location of reported human and animal cases of cryptococcosis in British Columbia were fed into the model, as were the sites where trees, soil, air and water samples had tested positive for the fungus. The researchers also used the software to map the ecology and environment of the region, using data on temperature, rainfall, soil drainage, levels of development, and land elevation, aspect and slope. These factors are thought to be important for the survival of the fungus.
The model predicts that C. gattii could survive within the province on the central and eastern coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the Vancouver Lower Mainland, they say.
With this forecast in mind, the researchers suggest that areas outside Canada are at risk of the fungus too. “[W]e hypothesise that the San Juan Islands and Puget Trough of Washington State and the Willamette Valley of Oregon State [of the USA] will also eventually become endemic areas for C. gattii,” write Mak and colleagues.
At least 40 cases of Cryptococcus in people and animals have already been spotted in Washington and Oregon since 2005. In their study, Byrnes and colleagues collected samples of the fungi from these cases for molecular analysis, and compared the results to the molecular profile of previously genotyped C. gattii collected from people, animals and the environment in other affected areas including Canada, Australia, and South America.
They found that the majority of Cryptococcus cases seen in north-western USA had been caused by the same sub-strain of C. gattii circulating in Canada. This strain appears to be unrelated to strains circulating in the tropical and subtropical parts of the world typically affected by the fungi. But nine cases detected in Oregon were caused by a new sub-strain never reported before anywhere in the world.
Tests in mice and mouse cell lines suggest that the newly emerged Canadian and US sub-strains are more virulent than strains circulating in subtropical and tropical areas, and can cause more severe lung infections, according to the authors.
“The rising incidence of cryptococcosis cases in humans and animals highlights the need for enhanced awareness in the region,” write Byrnes and colleagues. The new virulent fungus may also spread to northern California, they warn, where the climate is similar to that of the temperate parts of Oregon, where the fungi are already found.
Two cases of infection with a subtropical sub-strain of C. gattii have been reported in southern California, and the new virulent strain was also spotted in an environmental sample collected in the San Francisco area in 1990. Doctors and public health officials should be on alert for outbreaks caused by the fungus, say Byrnes and colleagues.
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Vancouver Island, Canada
Source: flickr/Graham Fair
|
|
A species of fungi capable of causing serious illness in people, which recently appeared in Canada, has spread from Vancouver Island into the country’s mainland and down to the US states of Washington and Oregon, according to reports published recently. So far 258 people have been affected by the outbreak.
Laboratory tests on samples of the fungi collected in the North American region suggest the sub-strain circulating there is more virulent than those seen in tropical areas traditionally hit by the pathogen.
“These findings demonstrate that this emerging and fatal outbreak is continuing to expand,” write Edmond Byrnes, of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, USA, and colleagues in PLoS Pathogens1.
The fungus, Cryptococcus gattii, can infect the lungs and nervous system of people and animals. Although human infections are rare, cases have been seen in tropical and subtropical climates including Australia, India, Papua New Guinea, and southern parts of California state in the USA, which lies within subtropical latitudes.
But in 1999 scientists found that the pathogen was infecting people and animals on the south-eastern coast of Vancouver Island, west of Canada’s British Columbia province. This was the first time the fungus had been seen in an area with a temperate climate. At least 240 people have been affected in the region over the past 10 years.
Writing in Environmental Health Perspectives2 this month, epidemiologists suggest the fungi could spread farther in this region. They say that ecological conditions favouring survival of C. gattii exist on a wider stretch of the islands’ coast than that currently affected by the outbreak, as well as in mainland Vancouver. This area is home to more than two million people.
“If C. gattii does become established in the Vancouver Lower Mainland… we would expect to see 79 cases of Cryptococcus per year,” calculate Sunny Mak, from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, and colleagues.
They came to this conclusion using a computer programme to model environmental conditions in the Canadian province. Data about the location of reported human and animal cases of cryptococcosis in British Columbia were fed into the model, as were the sites where trees, soil, air and water samples had tested positive for the fungus. The researchers also used the software to map the ecology and environment of the region, using data on temperature, rainfall, soil drainage, levels of development, and land elevation, aspect and slope. These factors are thought to be important for the survival of the fungus.
The model predicts that C. gattii could survive within the province on the central and eastern coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the Vancouver Lower Mainland, they say.
With this forecast in mind, the researchers suggest that areas outside Canada are at risk of the fungus too. “[W]e hypothesise that the San Juan Islands and Puget Trough of Washington State and the Willamette Valley of Oregon State [of the USA] will also eventually become endemic areas for C. gattii,” write Mak and colleagues.
At least 40 cases of Cryptococcus in people and animals have already been spotted in Washington and Oregon since 2005. In their study, Byrnes and colleagues collected samples of the fungi from these cases for molecular analysis, and compared the results to the molecular profile of previously genotyped C. gattii collected from people, animals and the environment in other affected areas including Canada, Australia, and South America.
They found that the majority of Cryptococcus cases seen in north-western USA had been caused by the same sub-strain of C. gattii circulating in Canada. This strain appears to be unrelated to strains circulating in the tropical and subtropical parts of the world typically affected by the fungi. But nine cases detected in Oregon were caused by a new sub-strain never reported before anywhere in the world.
Tests in mice and mouse cell lines suggest that the newly emerged Canadian and US sub-strains are more virulent than strains circulating in subtropical and tropical areas, and can cause more severe lung infections, according to the authors.
“The rising incidence of cryptococcosis cases in humans and animals highlights the need for enhanced awareness in the region,” write Byrnes and colleagues. The new virulent fungus may also spread to northern California, they warn, where the climate is similar to that of the temperate parts of Oregon, where the fungi are already found.
Two cases of infection with a subtropical sub-strain of C. gattii have been reported in southern California, and the new virulent strain was also spotted in an environmental sample collected in the San Francisco area in 1990. Doctors and public health officials should be on alert for outbreaks caused by the fungus, say Byrnes and colleagues.
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Vancouver Island, Canada
Source: flickr/Graham Fair
|
|
A species of fungi capable of causing serious illness in people, which recently appeared in Canada, has spread from Vancouver Island into the country’s mainland and down to the US states of Washington and Oregon, according to reports published recently. So far 258 people have been affected by the outbreak.
Laboratory tests on samples of the fungi collected in the North American region suggest the sub-strain circulating there is more virulent than those seen in tropical areas traditionally hit by the pathogen.
“These findings demonstrate that this emerging and fatal outbreak is continuing to expand,” write Edmond Byrnes, of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, USA, and colleagues in PLoS Pathogens1.
The fungus, Cryptococcus gattii, can infect the lungs and nervous system of people and animals. Although human infections are rare, cases have been seen in tropical and subtropical climates including Australia, India, Papua New Guinea, and southern parts of California state in the USA, which lies within subtropical latitudes.
But in 1999 scientists found that the pathogen was infecting people and animals on the south-eastern coast of Vancouver Island, west of Canada’s British Columbia province. This was the first time the fungus had been seen in an area with a temperate climate. At least 240 people have been affected in the region over the past 10 years.
Writing in Environmental Health Perspectives2 this month, epidemiologists suggest the fungi could spread farther in this region. They say that ecological conditions favouring survival of C. gattii exist on a wider stretch of the islands’ coast than that currently affected by the outbreak, as well as in mainland Vancouver. This area is home to more than two million people.
“If C. gattii does become established in the Vancouver Lower Mainland… we would expect to see 79 cases of Cryptococcus per year,” calculate Sunny Mak, from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, and colleagues.
They came to this conclusion using a computer programme to model environmental conditions in the Canadian province. Data about the location of reported human and animal cases of cryptococcosis in British Columbia were fed into the model, as were the sites where trees, soil, air and water samples had tested positive for the fungus. The researchers also used the software to map the ecology and environment of the region, using data on temperature, rainfall, soil drainage, levels of development, and land elevation, aspect and slope. These factors are thought to be important for the survival of the fungus.
The model predicts that C. gattii could survive within the province on the central and eastern coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the Vancouver Lower Mainland, they say.
With this forecast in mind, the researchers suggest that areas outside Canada are at risk of the fungus too. “[W]e hypothesise that the San Juan Islands and Puget Trough of Washington State and the Willamette Valley of Oregon State [of the USA] will also eventually become endemic areas for C. gattii,” write Mak and colleagues.
At least 40 cases of Cryptococcus in people and animals have already been spotted in Washington and Oregon since 2005. In their study, Byrnes and colleagues collected samples of the fungi from these cases for molecular analysis, and compared the results to the molecular profile of previously genotyped C. gattii collected from people, animals and the environment in other affected areas including Canada, Australia, and South America.
They found that the majority of Cryptococcus cases seen in north-western USA had been caused by the same sub-strain of C. gattii circulating in Canada. This strain appears to be unrelated to strains circulating in the tropical and subtropical parts of the world typically affected by the fungi. But nine cases detected in Oregon were caused by a new sub-strain never reported before anywhere in the world.
Tests in mice and mouse cell lines suggest that the newly emerged Canadian and US sub-strains are more virulent than strains circulating in subtropical and tropical areas, and can cause more severe lung infections, according to the authors.
“The rising incidence of cryptococcosis cases in humans and animals highlights the need for enhanced awareness in the region,” write Byrnes and colleagues. The new virulent fungus may also spread to northern California, they warn, where the climate is similar to that of the temperate parts of Oregon, where the fungi are already found.
Two cases of infection with a subtropical sub-strain of C. gattii have been reported in southern California, and the new virulent strain was also spotted in an environmental sample collected in the San Francisco area in 1990. Doctors and public health officials should be on alert for outbreaks caused by the fungus, say Byrnes and colleagues.
|
|
|
A species of fungi capable of causing serious illness in people, which recently appeared in Canada, has spread from Vancouver Island into the country’s mainland and down to the US states of Washington and Oregon, according to reports published recently. So far 258 people have been affected by the outbreak.
Laboratory tests on samples of the fungi collected in the North American region suggest the sub-strain circulating there is more virulent than those seen in tropical areas traditionally hit by the pathogen.
“These findings demonstrate that this emerging and fatal outbreak is continuing to expand,” write Edmond Byrnes, of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, USA, and colleagues in PLoS Pathogens1.
The fungus, Cryptococcus gattii, can infect the lungs and nervous system of people and animals. Although human infections are rare, cases have been seen in tropical and subtropical climates including Australia, India, Papua New Guinea, and southern parts of California state in the USA, which lies within subtropical latitudes.
But in 1999 scientists found that the pathogen was infecting people and animals on the south-eastern coast of Vancouver Island, west of Canada’s British Columbia province. This was the first time the fungus had been seen in an area with a temperate climate. At least 240 people have been affected in the region over the past 10 years.
Writing in Environmental Health Perspectives2 this month, epidemiologists suggest the fungi could spread farther in this region. They say that ecological conditions favouring survival of C. gattii exist on a wider stretch of the islands’ coast than that currently affected by the outbreak, as well as in mainland Vancouver. This area is home to more than two million people.
“If C. gattii does become established in the Vancouver Lower Mainland… we would expect to see 79 cases of Cryptococcus per year,” calculate Sunny Mak, from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, and colleagues.
They came to this conclusion using a computer programme to model environmental conditions in the Canadian province. Data about the location of reported human and animal cases of cryptococcosis in British Columbia were fed into the model, as were the sites where trees, soil, air and water samples had tested positive for the fungus. The researchers also used the software to map the ecology and environment of the region, using data on temperature, rainfall, soil drainage, levels of development, and land elevation, aspect and slope. These factors are thought to be important for the survival of the fungus.
The model predicts that C. gattii could survive within the province on the central and eastern coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the Vancouver Lower Mainland, they say.
With this forecast in mind, the researchers suggest that areas outside Canada are at risk of the fungus too. “[W]e hypothesise that the San Juan Islands and Puget Trough of Washington State and the Willamette Valley of Oregon State [of the USA] will also eventually become endemic areas for C. gattii,” write Mak and colleagues.
At least 40 cases of Cryptococcus in people and animals have already been spotted in Washington and Oregon since 2005. In their study, Byrnes and colleagues collected samples of the fungi from these cases for molecular analysis, and compared the results to the molecular profile of previously genotyped C. gattii collected from people, animals and the environment in other affected areas including Canada, Australia, and South America.
They found that the majority of Cryptococcus cases seen in north-western USA had been caused by the same sub-strain of C. gattii circulating in Canada. This strain appears to be unrelated to strains circulating in the tropical and subtropical parts of the world typically affected by the fungi. But nine cases detected in Oregon were caused by a new sub-strain never reported before anywhere in the world.
Tests in mice and mouse cell lines suggest that the newly emerged Canadian and US sub-strains are more virulent than strains circulating in subtropical and tropical areas, and can cause more severe lung infections, according to the authors.
“The rising incidence of cryptococcosis cases in humans and animals highlights the need for enhanced awareness in the region,” write Byrnes and colleagues. The new virulent fungus may also spread to northern California, they warn, where the climate is similar to that of the temperate parts of Oregon, where the fungi are already found.
Two cases of infection with a subtropical sub-strain of C. gattii have been reported in southern California, and the new virulent strain was also spotted in an environmental sample collected in the San Francisco area in 1990. Doctors and public health officials should be on alert for outbreaks caused by the fungus, say Byrnes and colleagues.
