Cryptococcus gattii is a deadly fungal infection that has now been found in several states outside of the Pacific Northwest in a development that is perplexing to infectious disease physicians and public health officials.
Unlike the more common Cryptococcus neoformans which infects mostly immunocompromised patients, C. gattii, while still very rare, can infect and kill the young and healthy, including a recent case of a healthy 18 year old woman in Georgia. The fungus causes severe brain and lung infections.
Julie Harris, MD, of the CDC comments in the article.
Leave a Reply