Fungus in bird droppings causes common illness

OBLONG, Ill (WTHI) - Allison Lowry from Oblong, Ill. got very sick while going to school at Indiana State just a few months ago. And her parents were very concerned.

"We kind of were just lucky that she was complaining of stomach aches and things like that so she had a cat scan of her stomach, and they just happened to take a portion her lungs in that cat scan," Greta Lowry, Allison's mother said.

They had to take her to the hospital. So what exactly was Allsion suffering from? It took doctors two weeks to determine she had histoplasmosis.  It's is a fungus that affects the lungs.

It's common to areas with high concentrations of bird and bat droppings, like the midwest.  In fact, some sources say traces of the fungus can be found in 80 percent of the people who live in these areas.

However, only a small percent of them become ill.

"It's in the soil. We all get exposed to it. Relatively few of us get symptomatic disease from it, but here in the midwest when we take a chest x-ray for whatever reason there's a very high likelyhood that we'll find a nodule," Dr. Lawrence Dultz, a pulmonary physician said.

Allison is doing better, but she's still recovering. Her family wants people to know that while it's a rare disease, it can happen to anyone.

"Some people try to just brush it off and if your child does contact this disease. It can be a very serious disease," Allen Lowry said.