United States: More than 150 paper mill workers in Michigan contracted a typical soil fungus, and with a single worker death in a huge uncontrollable outbreak in paper mills, which has hardly ever been witnessed in US history, local medical authorities and scholars were still uncertain about how it transpired this week.
More about the news
In a study done by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the blastomycosis outbreak at Billerud Paper in Escanaba, from November 2022 to May 2023, affected as few as 162 patients.
Among people sick from the fungus known as Blastomyces, 18 people were hospitalized, and one man died.
This outbreak is the first blastomycosis described in a linked paper mill or other industrial facilities.
A fungus sickened more than 150 Michigan workers. The CDC still isn't sure why it happened https://t.co/TpqFrpsmTv
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) January 2, 2025
The company occupies 2,200 acres for paper mill complexes, indoor mill structures and outdoor woodyards, water treatment Lagoons, and a landfill, according to CDC, lansingstatejournal.com reported.
Leaders conducted a sample poll across 603 of the 1000 workers within the plant, and from tests, at least 20 percent of the workers probably got the virus.
About the disease
Blastomycosis is a fungal disease due to the inhalation of Blastomyces products that lead to life-threatening pulmonary disease and high hospital admissions.
The CDC identified pulmonary illness as the most frequent manifestation – from mild respiratory symptoms to severe manifestations that may be fatal pneumonia. Skin lesions are among the symptoms in about 25 percent of the cases.
About 40–50 percent of people exposed to Blastomyces develop subclinical infection.
A fungus sickened more than 150 Michigan workers. The CDC still isn't sure why it happened
— Deborah (@Deborah07849071) January 2, 2025
A common soil fungus sickened more than 150 Michigan paper mill workers, and killed one, in what health officials called the largest such outbreak in U.S. history, but the exact cause… pic.twitter.com/fZezTWAnyS
The disease was found to have affected children and adults who visited an environmental camp in Northern Wisconsin in 1984.
Official sources disclosed that 48 of 95 people (89 of them children) in two groups contracted the disease during a two-week period in June of that year.
In the study conducted among 645 workers who participated in the investigation, 162 were confirmed to have blastomycosis, and of the above, the signs and symptoms discussed included cough, 90 percent, shortness of breath, fever, or chills, lansingstatejournal.com reported.
The rest said they had other symptoms, including loss of weight, general weakness, joint or bone pain, and muscle pain.