Two men in New York have developed a serious fungal infection after trying to grow their own cannabis fertilised with bat droppings. (Image credit: ozflash via Getty Images)
Patients: A 59-year-old man (patient number one) and a 64-year-old man (patient number two) from Rochester, New York.
Symptoms: Patient number one was initially admitted to hospital with respiratory failure after developing various symptoms including a sore throat, difficulty swallowing and significant weight loss over a period of about six weeks. At the hospital, doctors performed a CT scan of the patient's neck, which showed mucus had clogged the upper part of the voice box and the right vocal cord.
Patient number two, in turn, was initially hospitalized due to low levels of salt in his blood, which led to tissue swelling. His teeth were also in poor condition, making it difficult to eat and drink, contributing to weight loss, and he had a chronic cough.
What happened next: When he was admitted to the hospital, patient number one seemed to be deteriorating and showed signs of a bacterial blood infection. An additional CT scan, this time of the chest, showed fluid had built up in his lungs. Doctors treated him with antibiotics and briefly placed him on a ventilator to support his breathing. The medical team later found traces of the fungus in the patient’s urine and in mucus coughed up from his airways.
At the hospital, patient number two had a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). A CT scan revealed multiple lesions in the chest and abdomen. In addition, traces of fungi were found in the urine.
Diagnosis: Both patients, who had no connection to each other but lived in the same area, were diagnosed with a rare fungal lung infection called histoplasmosis.
This disease occurs when people inhale spores of the pathogenic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, which is commonly found in soil and the droppings of birds and bats. Histoplasmosis infects about 1 to 2 people in 100,000 each year in the United States. However, most people exposed to the fungus do not develop symptoms. Symptoms are more common in people with lung disease or weakened immune systems than in the general population.
In these two cases, the patients' symptoms may have been worsened by other conditions they had before developing histoplasmosis. For example, patient number one had emphysema, a common type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in which the air sacs in the lungs become damaged, making it difficult to breathe.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
