Utah fungus outbreak at Dinosaur National Monument surprises scientists

December 6, 2001

Utah fungus outbreak surprises scientists

TheAssociatedPress on Saturday, November 17

SALT LAKE CITY -- A soil-borne fungus was responsible for making 10 people

sick at Dinosaur National Monument in northeastern Utah this summer, health

officials said.

The fungus has never infected anyone in northern Utah before, scientists who

study the bug say.

The infected people, most of them students from out of state, got sick after

sifting through dirt for artifacts at the monument.

They've all since recovered and gone home, but in late June they were

hospitalized with flu-like symptoms that stumped doctors at first.

The fungus that causes the infection, Coccidioides immitis, usually shows up

in the southwestern United States, California and parts of Central and South

America, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention.

It lives in the soil and can infect people who inhale the spore.

" The Utah outbreak indicates that health care providers may need to consider

coccidioidomycosis if they see patients with similar illness, " the CDC wrote

in a report this week.

Doctors who first treated the patients thought the illness was something

spread by deer flies.

Coccidioidomycosis infection, often called " cocci " (pronounced cox-ee), is

treatable and is not contagious. It is potentially deadly, however.

The soil where the students were digging was particularly good habitat for

the fungus, according to the CDC report.

The area was closed temporarily. It has since reopened with guidelines

advising visitors to stay on maintained trails and to avoid kicking up dust

or walking on native soil.

The 320-square-mile Dinosaur National Monument straddles the Utah-Colorado

border about 150 miles east of Salt Lake City. It is replete with fossils.

On the Net:

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A10.

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