MANITOULIN ISLAND\u2014Beneath the cedar groves, along the shorelines, and in the damp, rich soil that makes Manitoulin Island one of Ontario\u2019s most beautiful destinations, a microscopic threat lies waiting. That lurking villain is called blastomycosis and for decades it has quietly claimed lives, sickened children and killed beloved pets across the Island\u2014earning this region a grim distinction as one of the disease\u2019s Canadian hot zones.<\/p>\n
Blastomycosis, often shortened to \u201cblasto,\u201d is caused by blastomyces dermatitis, a fungus that thrives in acidic, moist soil and rotting wood, particularly in wooded areas near lakes and rivers\u2014something the Island has in plentiful supply. People and animals become infected by inhaling airborne spores that are released when soil or decaying vegetation is disturbed\u2014through digging, hunting, gardening, or even a walk through the bush after a rainfall. In rarer cases, the fungus can enter through a cut or scrape on the skin.<\/p>\n
Public Health Sudbury & Districts has confirmed that the fungus is endemic to the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts, meaning it lives here permanently in the environment rather than arriving through any single outbreak. Alongside Kenora, the Manitoulin area is considered one of the province\u2019s primary hot spots for the disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANITOULIN ISLAND\u2014Beneath the cedar groves, along the shorelines, and in the damp, rich soil that makes Manitoulin Island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-825682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}