Family holidays in Costa Rica became embedded after 12 of the 13 parents developed symptoms of a fungal pulmonary infection after an excursion through caves filled with bats.
In season two of The last of usThe Cordycepts fungus – alert of the scam – is intended for air, which means that fungal infection can spread not only through bites but also when humans inhale its spores. Although the television show is very fictitious, airborne mushrooms are certainly not. An American family now knows it better than most, since 12 of their members fell ill after turning a bat cave in Costa Rica.
In an article published Thursday in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the researchers described 12 confirmed or probable cases of histoplasmosis: a pulmonary infection caused by the inhalation of the fungus Capsulatum histoplasm. This fungus lives in the ground, frequently alongside the excrement of birds or bats, and can become in the air if the earth is disturbed. Although symptoms are generally subtle, infection can make infants and immunocompromised people vulnerable to more serious illnesses.
During holidays in Costa Rica in December of last year, 12 of the 13 family members visited the Venado-Colonized Caves in Chauve-Souris, an old cave system and a popular tourist destination. This essentially meant crawling through the bats of bat for two hours. When they returned to the United States, everyone – with the exception of the only family member who had not toured the cave – does not go badly to various degrees, with symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle pain, night sweats, breathing problems and gastrointestinal problems.
Five family members looked for a doctor. Doctors tested four for fungal infections and two were tested positive for histoplasma. Two of the patients also had abnormal chest x -rays, one of which raised a concern for possible lung cancer. After learning their Spenking shipping, health care providers informed the CDC, which launched an investigation. In particular, the cave they had visited also caused an epidemic of histoplasmosis in 1998 and 1999.
“Antigen tests for the four patients occurred in the month of one month after the appearance of symptoms, the optimal deadline,” the team wrote, led by CDC researchers in the report. “However, because the sensitivity to the detection of the antigen for histoplasmosis is lower in patients with light disease who are immunocompetent, the results of the negative tests could have been false negatives.” In other words, since it is more difficult to detect histoplasmosis in healthy patients, family members who have tested negative could still have had histoplasmosis.
In the end, the doctors confirmed that a family member had histoplasmosis, eight members probably did it, and three were suspected of having it. Fortunately, none of them became zombies – or had lung cancer – and within 28 days of exposure, they were all about to recover. While doctors generally prescribe antifungal drugs for patients with severe histoplasmosis, many cases in healthy individuals disappear alone.
Histoplasmosis is sometimes difficult to diagnose. As such, researchers urge clinicians to “consider fungal diseases in the differential diagnosis of patients with constitutional signs or symptoms after possible development or other activities associated with the risk of histoplasmosis”, they concluded. In collaboration with the United States Embassy in Costa Rica and the Costa Rica Ministry of Health, the CDC hopes to see the risk of histoplasmosis included in the forms of derogation from Venado Caves Tour.
It is not surprising that The last of us is so popular. After all, Andrzej Sapkowski – Author of The witch“Wave that” there is a grain of truth in each fairy tale “. It seems to be true, even in an fungal zombie apocalypse.
