Deadly Fungus Strikes Joplin Tornado Survivors, Volunteers

Deadly Fungus Strikes Joplin Tornado Survivors, Volunteers

The Greene County (Mo.) Health Department has issued a memo to health care workers who are treating injured victims of May's deadly Joplin tornado, warning them that a powerful fungus has infected patients' wounds.

The Springfield News-Leader reports as many as nine cases have been reported in tornado victims across the area in various hospitals. Once the aggressive fungus -- called zygomycosis -- enters the body, it causes the death of infected cells. Three or four patients, who otherwise would have survived their wounds, have died from it.

If the fungus stays in a limb, like an arm or leg, some treatments have necessitated amputation to save the patient. Others with wounds near the head weren't so lucky -- as soon as brain tissue started dying, it was too late to save the patient.

Good grief... Mother nature can be relentless.

Their immune systems must suck, Or the joplin vegetation must be rotten. Heres an external pic of the diseas on someones eye if your interested.
This is horrible, but it can always be worse and thats even worse!


Never mind It wont let me post the link to the picture

Wow now that is MESSED UP.

I wonder if the spores were picked up by the storm somewhere then spread by the tornado across the area.

Those poor people :|

I just watched a video from a friend who was there.
I was truly in shock and awe over the tragedy.
Now this.
I wish I could do something to help.
UNREAL what's 'unleashing' these days...
Almost makes me start to believe in plagues...


peace

Originally posted by loam

Good grief... Mother nature can be relentless.

She has yet to be as relentless in killing us as we have been with her. If we keep up our end the way we have...

She will show us ALL how relentless she can be.

I live in Joplin and have been following this as well.........

Zygomycosis, now known as mucormycosis, is a fungal infection that spreads rapidly and can be caused by soil or vegetative material becoming embedded under the skin. It’s more prevalent in people with weakened immune systems or untreated diabetes but can affect healthy people who suffer trauma and are injected with contaminated soil.

Thus far it’s affected only those that had traumatic injuries. I am worried about those survivors who were in the storm that are now having breathing problems due to the amount of debris and particles in the air. One of my employees who is very lucky to be alive after surviving the storm in her car is now having issues with her lungs……….

Damn Nature... You scary!!!
2nd line

reply to post by Cloudsinthesky


Update to my last post……..I contacted my employee and her primary physician has now diagnosed her with pneumonia………….Not sure yet if cultures where taken to test for pulmanary Zygomycosis.

We have been researching Zygomycosis and it is a little concerning the number of people that have been diagnosed with the fungi.

Hopefully over the next few days no “new” cases will appear…………and it is limited to those sustaining traumatic injuries……….

It's just another sign of the end of the age.

But then end is not yet.

Soon, but not quite yet.

Originally posted by loam
Good grief... Mother nature can be relentless.

edit on 10-6-2011 by loam because: (no reason given)

Or ignorant intentional influences

It seems that when a tragedy strikes there is always more. In Japan they had an earthquake,tsunami and a nuclear fallout. In Joplin a tornada and now this fungus. I have never heard of this before. In Katrina did they have this type of thing? I remember some people became very ill after the hurricane.

How awful, and I'm sorry to read this sad news. Has anyone noticed fungus in general becoming more prevalent where you live?

I'm in Maryland and the last few years I've seen a burst of growth of all kinds of fungus everywhere, inside and outside the house. Tree trunks are just covered in it all around where I live. Got a lot of mushrooms in the shady areas of the yard that pop up after just a couple days of rain. It used to be, for as long as I can recall, you would need a good spell of wet weather for mushrooms to appear.

I'm constantly battling mildew inside the garden hoses. My parents never had as much trouble with their garden hoses as I've got these days and I don't recall it being this bad a few years ago. And I have to work hard to keep ahead of mildew growth in the bathroom. I use bleach pens on caulk and an enzymatic cleaner. I launder the show curtains every week in bleach. This IS new as I have been keeping house for over twenty years and not seen mold and mildew so aggressive and pervasive as it's become in the past eight years or so. I can't pinpoint exactly when the tipping point was reached, I just know it has, and keeping mold and mildew in check has become a big job for me and other families I've talked to about it. Our kids are now being diagnosed with allergies and the pediatricians say mold is a big culprit. When I was a kid it was kind of unusual to run into kids with bad allergies and now it seems the norm. Most of the kids in my daughter's class are on some kind of allergy meds. I resisted for a long time but gave in and had to let my kid start taking them too.

I started some seedlings indoors this year and will never do that again because mold grew on the surface of the soil and I had to transfer the seedlings to the garden before they were ready.

So this is a soil fungus? Sounds quite similar to Valley Fever. Have they figured out where the fungus originated?

reply to post by 1FullHouse


I was reading a bit on the thread about how windy it's gotten all around and people are suffering bad bouts of allergies. My guess is a lot of fungal spores are being kicked up and transported to new locations and confounding people not used to dealing with these types in their region. Tornados could certainly drive the spores into wounds. In those high winds anyone caught out would be a bit sandblasted by all sorts of particulates.

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13

Originally posted by loam
Good grief... Mother nature can be relentless.

edit on 10-6-2011 by loam because: (no reason given)

Or ignorant intentional influences

I am not sure what goes into finding, and transporting a rare fungus to release upon some people, but I doubt the WBC had anything to do with this.

I would wager that Obama is a cursed man, and his visit caused our turmoil there.

There have been many tornadoes in the past...yet, I've never heard of the aftermath causing a deadly fungus. What makes this different from any other city/town that has been hit by a tornado?

We live about 100 miles from Joplin, and I can say that there is something different in the air around here. We have had so may people in our area with respiratory infections that the clinics are always full. I have never had problems with allergies, but I have been sick with so-called allergies for about a month now, along with everyone else that I know. And allergy meds are not helping. We have had lots of chest colds, much more than normal for our kids.

Lots of unexplained rashes around as well, that just do not respond to any meds.

reply to post by dukesoflazard

I think, based on the talks I've had with other parents and my pediatrician, and adding in the post above mine about the respiratory issues around Joplin, AND taking into account a year's worth of discussion on ATS about a very bad bout of respiratory illness striking many people worldwide this year, that global climate change has caused many different kinds of respiratory irritants to flourish. Anything from viruses to bacteria to fungi. You name it, a lot of people are suffering irritation, infections and sinus trouble worse than most of us can recall in our short lifetimes. What makes Joplin noteworthy now is that the tornadoes caused at least one of these irritants to be driven into the usual wounds you'd see in tornado victims. Also the fungi were deposited everywhere they normally aren't, and people with cuts were getting into contact. I think the reason we haven't really seen this happen before is that these fungal spores weren't as numerous in times past. I think somehow, we got climate conditions that caused the to proliferate wherever they originated. Above average wind activity moved them further and spread then beyond their usual range or put them out where humans were more likely to come in contact. The tornadoes the finished the job by forcing the spores into open wounds on victims. Rescuers got a more traditional route of infection by mere contact on cuts. That's my amateur guess. It was, pardon the expression, the perfect storm of all these separate elements coming together to cause this new catastrophe.

Oh man! this is awful, how horrible!

So, is this fungus very common in soil all over the world?