The Centers for Disease Control is on the case of a blastomycosis outbreak in central Wisconsin. Three field investigators from Atlanta have been helping Marathon County and state health officials study why there’s been an increase in cases this year.
The CDC’s Monika Roy says blasto can be hard to study. The investigation in Marathon County is one of only two or three field studies that Roy’s mycotic diseases branch does each year. What makes the Marathon County cases so interesting is that people who get blasto don’t fit the normal profile. Health officials have found more women and younger people getting the disease and they say blasto cases have been clustered in certain parts of the county.