Looks like we've got a new player for CDC to worry about.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/04/22/fungus-cryptococcus-gattii-deaths.html

This has got my attention unlike anything I've seen in the past few years.

Yup, nice article.

makes me think of the movie "The Happening".

This story is just essentially the same conspiracy theory story as the Russian Intel Monsanto Cryptococcus gattii aka Cryptococcus neoformans GMO corn induced Mystery lung disease story as in this recent thread.

http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=200668#Post200668

So nothing to worry about really. The idea that GMO corn has caused a wide spread highly specific immunologic deficiency throughout a human population, which can then be targeted by a fungus spore such as Cryptococcus neoformans found in Eucalyptus trees is a preposterous idea. What's the chances of that happening? Just don't ask that question to a Monsanto bioprivateer. Shiver me timbers

Really, I have no idea where the GMO/conspiracy thing comes from; it doesn't seem relevant IMHO. (Love the sheep .gif, though.)

I visit Vancouver Island regularly. The Island has been dealing with versions of this fungus for over ten years. There were some hot spots IIRC, in areas that are otherwise magnificent to visit.

If there's a new, nastier version, I want to know about it. Especially since if I seek medical treatment, it will be a thousand miles away. I may need to point this out to local physicians as a possibility; it won't be on their short list.

BTW, I also have a vague recollection that some areas in Ontario had problems with a soil/air borne fungus infecting pets and people. May be a different strain entirely.

"This story is just essentially the same conspiracy theory story as the Russian Intel Monsanto Cryptococcus gattii aka Cryptococcus neoformans GMO corn induced Mystery lung disease story as in this recent thread."

That is an incorrect statement, and the two issues are not related.

Yes it probably is incorrect, although to say that the two issues are not related is probably too strong a sentiment from my own opinionated perspective of the complex world of unintended biological and environmental consequences. Scientific hubris when mixed with the bottom line of corporate profit will eventually lead once again to disaster. Its only a matter of time. Whether the general populous gets the real insight into the causes of the future man made corporate environmental disaster in an age of media disinformation, well that's a completely different matter.

True, you can always draw a line between two points, no matter the distance.

I prefer to separate what is real from what is contrived. The fungal invasion is real, whatever the origins or the lacking present prevalence; the 2,000,000+ dead Americans from hybrid corn is contrived, even though the number is large and the apparent origin is known.

Based on this, which might be about as good as it gets:

http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2010/04/cryptococcus_gattii_outbreak_d.php

Good news: this is not a new disease, it typically occurs only in immune-compromised persons, there are reliable treatments.

The bad news: It is showing up in places it previously wasn't known, if not detected and treated soon enough it can be quite deadly.

Changing weather patterns, warming, possibly associated with global warming, might explain why it is showing up where it is and when it has but the reasons remain unclear.

I think that the bad news was that the disease was now being seen in supposed non compromised immunity persons. Now whether the individuals that have unfortunately been infected with a new strain of fungus spore i.e. a more virulent strain or whether that persons immune system has been specifically damaged by another unknown disease (such as the HIV virus or the conspiracy theory Monsanto GMO corn which as a byproduct apparently produces a protein unknown to exist in the natural environment, ahem used to be unknown in the natural environment), in which the unchanged fungus spore (same DNA as previous lineages) can now take advantage.

I concur the fungus now seems to infect folks who are not immune suppressed. The morbidity rate was around 25% if memory serves. That's in healthy individuals.
Problem is, the fungus has spread as far south as Oregon...