Yuk! A deadly fungus is thought to be spreading up north because of climate change.

Potentially Deadly Fungus spreading in US, Canada

* Fungus is unique genetic strain * — Climate change may be helping its spread

According to NPR:

“A rare and dangerous fungal infection named Cryptococcus gattii has been quietly spreading from British Columbia southward to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. And it’s changing as it goes.

Researchers have discovered that a unique strain of the bug has emerged recently in Oregon, and already has spread widely there, sickening humans and animals.

So far, over the past 11 years there have been about 220 cases reported in British Columbia. Since 2004, doctors in Washington and Oregon have reported about 50 cases. Among the total 270 cases, 40 people have died from overwhelming infections of the lungs and brain.”

You might want to put that vacation to British Columbia or Seattle on hold. According to the fungus’s FAQ pdf linked to above:

Until recently, C. gattii was only found in certain subtropical and tropical environments. In 1999 it emerged on Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC), Canada. Between 1999 and 2006, 176 cases were reported in BC. C. gattii has been isolated from native tree species on Vancouver Island and from the surrounding soil and air, primarily from the east coast of Vancouver Island. Cases have also occurred on the lower BC mainland. The exact geographic distribution of the fungus is not known, and may be expanding.

And from Reuters – A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday.

The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said.

“This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people,” said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

“The findings presented here document that the outbreak of C. gattii in Western North America is continuing to expand throughout this temperate region,” the researchers said in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1000850.

“Our findings suggest further expansion into neighboring regions is likely to occur and aim to increase disease awareness in the region.” The new strain appears to be unusually deadly, with a mortality rate of about 25 percent among the 21 U.S. cases analyzed, they said. “From 1999 through 2003, the cases were largely restricted to Vancouver Island,” the report reads.

“Between 2003 and 2006, the outbreak expanded into neighboring mainland British Columbia and then into Washington and Oregon from 2005 to 2009. Based on this historical trajectory of expansion, the outbreak [...]