Summer is just beginning here in the west coast of Canada and it is delightful. I moved here to Vancouver Island from Ann Arbor, Michigan, in June '08 with my wife and two daughters. We live in Victoria about a mile from the beach and it is a lovely place to be in many ways. There are the views of snow capped mountains across the water in Washington State and a moderate climate with much warmer winters and cooler summers than we are used to.
The bad news is I have been sick as a dog since last September when I had a nasty bout of pneumonia. So I have not been enjoying my new home as much as I would wish or feeling able to actively explore the many possibilities that living here offers.
This blog is a bit of a detective story as I try to unravel what is wrong with me and how to get better. I have been getting excellent medical care since I got sick (which is free as I'm living in Canada now) but I still can't seem to get over the after effects of my pneumonia. I feel like I have no energy at all and even a short uphill walk or other moderate exercise knocks me out for a day or so. I also feel pretty foggy a lot of the time so serious mental activity is a challenge at best, though this is slowly improving, as for example my maths skills are returning.
I just got an email from my father-in-law this evening suggesting I look into a fungal disease that he had read about while visiting us recently. It turns out this disease comes from a fungus that is common at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park near Parksville BC, where we had stayed just a few weeks before I got sick. The park has an impressive forest with tall trees and lots of damp areas, just right for fungus spores to gather in the air as you walked by and pop into your lungs.
Quite a few folks have apparently become ill after similar vacations at the beach there. At one point a few years ago they even posted warnings on the Park web site resulting in almost 1000 cancellations for camp site bookings. Not surprisingly they no longer post the warning. Fortunately most people who are exposed to this bug don't seem to get sick from it, but those who do can get quite ill.
I have written a note to my doctor asking to be tested for Cryptococcus-gattii which is the name of this illness. It is a nasty disease and has killed 19 people on the Island in the last ten years and sickened almost 250. The good news is it is treatable and for folks like me who are not immunosuppressed it is less likely to be lethal.
The strangest part of all this is that this is usually a tropical disease found in Australia and has only been around in BC since 1999 and mainly only on Vancouver Island, though it is apparently spreading around the Island and onto the mainland now with a projected course down the coast towards California.
The global warming connection is that the fungus was probably dormant here for a long time, but only recently became active due to the recent spate of warm summers. It is also more dangerous than its sister bugs in Australia, Oregon and Washington or its cousins elsewhere in the world. Aren't I the lucky one to get it, if indeed I have.
Below is the web address for an article from the Washington Post if you want to learn more about this fascinating illness and its global warming connections.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/08/MNGEIP501T1.DTL&type=printable
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