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Deadly Fungus Delivers Another Blow To Joplin
Meagan Kelleher, Web Producer
4:44 p.m. CDT, June 10, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. The death toll from the Joplin tornado has risen to 151. Three of those deaths were in people stricken with a rare and aggressive fungal infection. The state health department says it's received reports of eight of the infections among tornado victims.
It's called zygomycosis and is one of the most feared fungal infections. Now it's adding a terrible insult to injury for some tornado victims.
"The fungus tends to invade blood vessels. By doing so it blocks off blood circulation and causes tissue gangrene," Dr. David McKinsey with Research Medical Center said.
Zygomycosis kills about half its victims.
Dr. McKinsey, an infectious disease specialist, has seen only a handful of cases in his 25 year career. So why is it striking more people than that from one twister?
The fungus is common. It's in the soil and decaying vegetation, it even causes the mold on bread. All of us are exposed to it, but we don't have it slammed through our skin. That's what happened with the tornado when people were hit and cut by flying debris.
"That foreign material was contaminated with the fungus so the fungus was then able to enter the body after the injury occurred," Dr. McKinsey said.
Doctors treating Joplin victims say in some cases, wounds that were sewed up after the twister were not adequately cleaned and had to be reopened.
Health departments in southwest Missouri have put out a warning to doctors to watch for zygomycosis, although Dr. McKinsey says he doubts there will be more cases since the infection happens fast. He says it's not something that people doing clean-up should worry about.
"This would only occur after a serious traumatic injury and not as a result of clean-up activities," he said.
Cases of zygomycosis were also reported after the tsunami in Indonesia, and in some soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the fungal infection has mostly been seen in people who have severely weakened immune systems from poorly controlled diabetes, AIDs or chemotherapy.
They get it when they inhale the spores, but Dr. McKinsey says if you have a healthy immune system, you won't get it that way.
Meagan Kelleher, Web Producer
4:44 p.m. CDT, June 10, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. The death toll from the Joplin tornado has risen to 151. Three of those deaths were in people stricken with a rare and aggressive fungal infection. The state health department says it's received reports of eight of the infections among tornado victims.
It's called zygomycosis and is one of the most feared fungal infections. Now it's adding a terrible insult to injury for some tornado victims.
"The fungus tends to invade blood vessels. By doing so it blocks off blood circulation and causes tissue gangrene," Dr. David McKinsey with Research Medical Center said.
Zygomycosis kills about half its victims.
Dr. McKinsey, an infectious disease specialist, has seen only a handful of cases in his 25 year career. So why is it striking more people than that from one twister?
The fungus is common. It's in the soil and decaying vegetation, it even causes the mold on bread. All of us are exposed to it, but we don't have it slammed through our skin. That's what happened with the tornado when people were hit and cut by flying debris.
"That foreign material was contaminated with the fungus so the fungus was then able to enter the body after the injury occurred," Dr. McKinsey said.
Doctors treating Joplin victims say in some cases, wounds that were sewed up after the twister were not adequately cleaned and had to be reopened.
Health departments in southwest Missouri have put out a warning to doctors to watch for zygomycosis, although Dr. McKinsey says he doubts there will be more cases since the infection happens fast. He says it's not something that people doing clean-up should worry about.
"This would only occur after a serious traumatic injury and not as a result of clean-up activities," he said.
Cases of zygomycosis were also reported after the tsunami in Indonesia, and in some soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the fungal infection has mostly been seen in people who have severely weakened immune systems from poorly controlled diabetes, AIDs or chemotherapy.
They get it when they inhale the spores, but Dr. McKinsey says if you have a healthy immune system, you won't get it that way.
