Health
Outbreak of fungal infection affects more than 90 workers at Escanaba paper mill
More than 90 workers at a paper mill on the Upper Peninsula are believed to be infected with a fungus found in soil and decaying wood, with about a dozen requiring hospitalization.
An investigation into blastomycosis at the Billerud paper mill in Escanaba is ongoing and involves local, state and federal health and occupational safety authorities. With nearly 900 employees, the Bireldo plant is the state’s largest manufacturing employer and economic engine north of the Midlands, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
Blastomycosis outbreaks that affect large numbers of people are very rare because fungal diseases are not usually transmitted from person to person. Instead, it indicates that a large number of employees were infected from the same material, including Blastomyces fungal spores present in some environments in the eastern United States and Canada.
What fungi do in the human body
“I’ve been working in a paper mill for about 11 years and this has never happened,” said Gerald Kell, president of the National Steelworkers’ Local 21 Union, which represents about 670 workers at the mill. Stated.
Biopsies and/or lab cultures have confirmed about 19 cases of blastomycosis in Bireldo employees, and another 74, according to Friday’s release from the local health department, Public Health Delta County and Menominee County. workers were tested as a likely case. I have symptoms of blastomycosis. Positive antigen or antibody test from urine or saliva.
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“About a dozen” employees were hospitalized “to some degree” as a result of their illness, including at least one employee who required several weeks of hospitalization, Kell said.
according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionpeople contract blastomycosis after breathing in microscopic fungal spores in the air, often after participating in activities that disturb the soil. It changes and stays in the lungs or travels through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, such as the skin, bones, joints, organs, brain, and spinal cord.
Cases are rare.death is even rarer
Most people who inhale Blastomyces spores do not get sick, but they do get colds, flu, or other more common respiratory illnesses, such as fever, cough, night sweats, muscle or joint pain, chest pain, and extreme fatigue. Some people develop symptoms similar to .
Blastomycosis can be serious in some people, especially those with a weakened immune system.
States tracking blastomycosis report only about 1-2 cases per 100,000 population per year. Deaths from the disease are similarly rare, and the CDC found that from 1990 to 2010, he had 1,216 blastomycosis-related deaths in the United States.
Kell said symptoms of the infection began in early March.
“A few people were out with respiratory[symptoms],” he said. “Two were seriously ill and required hospitalization.”
These early hospitalized workers were treated for bacterial pneumonia, which had not improved. At that time, additional testing by medical personnel revealed blastomycosis.
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“It’s not something they normally test for,” he said. “People are now being identified quickly and receiving more effective treatment.”
Treatment is with antifungal drugs, often requiring a course of treatment lasting six months to a year.
In addition to local health departments, paper mill investigative agencies include the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The source of the fungus has not yet been identified
The Escanaba mill is owned by the American subsidiary of Swedish pulp and paper manufacturer Billerud AB. Company officials shared a statement with the Free Press from Bryan Peterson, Vice President of Operations at the Bireldo Escanaba Plant.
“The health and safety of Escanaba employees is our top priority,” he said. “Although the source of the infection has not been identified, we take this matter very seriously and follow the recommendations of health and government officials to protect the health and safety of our employees, contractors and visitors. We are taking many proactive steps.”
Kell said it wasn’t clear if more workers were getting the disease, or if more workers were showing symptoms from the same exposure.
“You and I could be exposed on the same day from the same source, and you could develop symptoms in three to four weeks, and I could develop symptoms in three to four months.
“Of course people are worried. We don’t know where the exposure is coming from. It’s not been identified. There are cases all over the factory. It’s a 2,200-acre facility.”
Workers are encouraged to wear company-provided N95 masks, and the HVAC system and other areas of the factory are being thoroughly cleaned as advised by health and occupational safety officials, Kell said. .
The community rallied around the paper mill and last weekend generated more than $30,000 in a fundraiser organized by the union to offset the costs of the most seriously ill employees, Kell said.
Contact Keith Matheny: [email protected].
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