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Strain of deadly fungus spreads to Oregon
Researchers have discovered a new strain of a potentially deadly fungus in Oregon, marking another step in the steady spread of Cryptococcus gattii from Vancouver Island to the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
"It's present in Oregon, and we haven't found it anywhere else yet," Joseph Heitman of North Carolina's Duke University Medical Center said yesterday of the new strain.
"That's not to say it doesn't exist somewhere in the environment, but we haven't found it ─ and we've looked hard," said Dr. Heitman, senior author of a paper published online Thursday in Public Library of Science Pathogens.
Duke researchers used DNA sequencing to identify the strain, a new variety of a fungus that has been tracked on Vancouver Island for the past decade.
In their paper, the scientists called for enhanced awareness of the fungus, which can cause cryptococcal disease and appears to be on an "inexorable expansion" in the region.
Source: Toronto Globe & Mail