Bad Moon Rising Over Lotusland

TheKingOfDither
HarperVille


Think we can wait for twenty or thirty, or even a hundred years, before we really have to worry about global warming wreaking havoc here in Lotusland?

And I'm not just talking about windstorms in Stanley Park.

Or even pine beetles turning entire swaths of forest red due to the lack of cold winters.

No.

Instead, I'm talking about the Armigiddeon Times that are riding in, right here, right now, on the spores of a tropical fungus called Cryptococcus gattii that have landed and flourished on southeast Vancouver Island where it is making people sick, really sick:

No medical book had ever described its presence north of California. Some guessed it came to B.C. by way of an imported eucalyptus tree, or blew in on the warm Pacific wind of the Pineapple Express. Whatever it was, health authorities initially took the outbreak of Cryptococcus gattii for a blip that would quickly wither.

They were wrong. The life-threatening tropical fungus has entrenched itself on Vancouver Island's east coast, sickening humans and animals — cats, dogs, pet birds, llamas, ferrets, horses and the prized Dall's porpoise. For a pathogen never expected in this corner of the world, the C. gattii strain in B.C. is flourishing at a rate at least 30 times more infectious than any other on the planet.

{Snip}

Still, no one can say exactly where the Vancouver Island fungus came from, or how. But what they do say is that climate change likely plays a lead role in the C. gattii story — that a string of mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers set the stage for its disturbing debut.

“People talk about climate change issues in regard to air quality, but we are seeing the emergence of fatal diseases in places we didn't see them before,” said Pamela Kibsey, medical director of microbiology at the Vancouver Island Health Authority. “It's the best explanation we have as to why this fungus has suddenly become endemic on the island.”

{snip}

Their (the patients with what turned out to be C. gatti) infections also seemed unusually virulent. About 20 per cent developed pneumonia, 15 per cent got meningitis, the lining of their brains swelling. Most could be treated successfully. But some had to be admitted to hospital, and the treatment with antifungal medications was expensive and at least six months long.......

Anthropomorphic climate change.

It's not just for Dither Kings and their Spin-Doctors anymore.

OK?

.