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A rare bat-related lung disease has taken up residence in Alberta, according to new research from provincial laboratory scientists.
Infectious disease experts from the Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL) and the University of Alberta have confirmed that histoplasmosis – a fungal infection transmitted through the droppings of bats and birds – is now found in Alberta. Their study extends the known range of the disease much further northwest of its traditional focus in the central United States and parts of southern Ontario and Quebec.
“We were surprised at the number of locally acquired cases, as histoplasmosis has always been considered a travel-related infection,” said Dr Tanis Dingle, APL’s senior clinical microbiologist for fungal diseases and assistant professor at the University of Australia School of Medicine. & Dentistry. “We now know he lives in Alberta permanently and has the potential to infect people who come in contact with him.”
The fungus can be present in contaminated dust particles and, when inhaled, patients experience respiratory infections accompanied by flu-like symptoms including cough, fever, chills and headache. The cases are usually linked to people who have come in contact with bat or bird droppings in old homes, churches, construction sites and parks.
Among 45 confirmed cases of histoplasmosis in Alberta between 2011 and 2018, researchers used epidemiological data and genetic analysis to determine that 15 of the cases were acquired locally. The cases were mostly found in rural parts of central Alberta, including Sundre, Stettler and County, Stony Plain and Spruce Grove. Previously, the fungus’ geographic range was not thought to extend further northwest than Minnesota, about 2,000 km. The results of the study were published this month in the medical journal The Lancet microbe. In addition, the first scans from the study led scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to include the region in the newly drawn maps of areas where the disease is known.
“Knowing that histoplasmosis is there may help improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients who do not have a history of travel to traditional risk areas,” said Dr Ilan Schwartz, assistant professor, Division of Diseases infectious diseases, U of A. “Histoplasmosis can be a difficult disease to diagnose and treat, and patients often spend months before the correct diagnosis is made. Realizing that the disease is there is a first step essential for physicians to consider the diagnosis and order the appropriate tests. ”
Researchers are also studying whether climate change could be a factor in the spread of histoplasmosis to new geographies. In Alberta, increased temperatures and decreased precipitation have been documented over the past decades, which could have created more favorable conditions for Histoplasma life in Alberta soils. The disease can survive soil temperatures of -18 ° C to 37 ° C, the lower end of this range being common in Alberta winters.
The research team hopes to continue their work by further studying soil samples to determine other areas of Alberta where the disease may be present.
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The study “Acquired Histoplasmosis in Alberta, Canada: An Epidemiological and Genomic Study” has been published in the medical journal The Lancet microbe.
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