ATLANTA - U.S. health officials say a fungus usually found in the tropics, called Cryptococcus gattii, has taken root in the Pacific Northwest and has been blamed for at least 60 illnesses and 15 deaths.
The fungal illness is still considered rare. But an increasing number of people who have breathed it in have become sick or died. Symptoms include a persistent cough, headache and fever.
The fungus seems to grow on or around trees. Over the last six years, health officials have tracked 43 cases in Oregon, 15 in Washington, one in California and one in Idaho.
The tally was reported Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The fungus is being tracked by health officials in British Columbia as well. The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control says it has recorded 272 cases since 1999. Of these, 191 are among residents of Vancouver Island.
The centre doesn't have firm death figures because people who catch the fungus can be sick for a long time, and if they die it could occur many months or years down the road.
In 2008, nine per cent of the total cases to that point had gone on to die from the infection, the B.C. centre says.
