Earth day histoplasmosis. A new type of urban pollution
Fass, R.J.; Saslaw, S.
Archives of Internal Medicine 128(4): 588-590
1971
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-9926 PMID: 5111664 Document Number: 38784
A healthy, 35-yr-old white woman schoolteacher became acutely ill in the 2nd week of May 1970 with fever, chills, headache, myalgia, malaise, cough, anorexia and nausea. A chest roentgenogram showed bilateral nodular patchy pulmonary densities arid Mar adenopathy and the serological picture indicated histopiasmosis. Many of the students at the Willis Intermediate School, where the patient taught, had suffered from a similar illness during the first 2 weeks in May and this had become known as the ' Willis flu '. Serological data on 11 patients with roentgenological findings similar to the first patient and on 9 additional patients from the community indicated titres compatible with recent Histoplasma capsulatum infection. A common exposure during April 22-25 was indicated and this coincided with 'Earth Day', when students carried out clean-up activities round the school where blackbirds and pigeons frequented and where the air intakes to the school ventilation system were situated. H. capsulatum was recovered from the soil.