(Thanks, T. :)

READER ADVISORY: Please consider whether you really want to know about this at this time, before proceeding.

WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW: Oregano Oil may be something you'd like to keep around.

UNASKED/UNANSWEREED QUESTION: Would Colloidal Silver (or any other highly-regarded natural 'antifungal') work for this?

Reader TT writes:

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New US emerging disease: Fungus that kills hea....

One of my dogs died a month ago to a fungus which began as a skin rash. I tried everything to kill the fungus without success. Two weeks before death, she began vomiting yellow bile and stopped eating. Another dog began the same yellow vomiting tonight, and I went back to researching fungi.

Not trying to scare you, but it'd be real smart to be aware of this "emerging disease" in the US that's caused by a fungus never seen here before 2004 . . . Cryptococcus gattii. Initial symptoms are common (cough, nausea, vomiting, skin rash). Docs don't know about CG or test for it. Fungi feed off the tissue of its host, human or animal, slowly and literally eating it alive (and even continue feeding after death).

There have been many new fungi strains emerging in US since 1999 (also when CTs began regularly everywhere in US) that are killing entire sets of animals, reptiles, birds, fish, bees, etc. The snake and frog fungus has a 90% kill rate. Scientists are stumped, as usual.

Most fungi only kill humans with suppressed immune systems, but this new one, CG, kills healthy people of all ages. It mimics many diseases--cough, flu, pneumonia, meningitis, and more. It was first identified in US in 2004 in the Pacific NW, Washington, Oregon and Vancouver, but medical cases are now identified in states from coast to coast, including the arid southwest.

I've listed the symptoms below. They're common ones you should watch (ie, symptoms that don't quite go away or constantly recur) 'cause people can die within a month of first going to the doc. The docs don't test for CG or any fungus, but give antibiotics for cough, pneumonia, nausea and other drugs depending on the symptom.

They think incubation time from first inhaling the spores is 2-13 months, however, some were 6 months and some were up to 3 years. Depending on the study (and there haven't been many yet) they think the death rate ranges from 8% - 14%. My guess is that it's higher since many were not tested for CG, and their deaths would have been attributed only to their symptom, pneumonia, etc.

As a side note, locals at a convenience store were talking about the current and unusual pneumonia outbreak here. Last week I also began coughing uncontrollably. After I heard the talk about pneumonia, I began Oregano Oil for its antibiotic properties (and it's also a potent anti-fungal). It pretty much stopped the cough within 2 days. I'm going to continue taking it for a couple of weeks, then rest from it, and take for a few more weeks.

They say CG isn't contagious, but my research on black fungus in dogs said just the opposite, highly contagious to other animals and humans. Spores are in the skin lesions, skin sheds off in tiny pieces with spores in it, and spores are in the mucous from eyes, nose, and mouth.

This mother's site for her now dead 26-year-old healthy son has a short list of his doctor visits over one month of sickness. At the end of the month he was admitted to the hospital, and the mom finally insisted they test him for CG (she had been researching since docs weren't helping and he was getting worse). It came back positive, but he died that day. He was able to work up to the last week before death. Like my dog, the sickness only becomes really evident shortly before death. http://www.throughmikeseyes.ca/case.php

Fungi continue to live off the dead host and can remain dormant in the soil for years without any food, as spores.

Symptoms include:
• Prolonged cough (lasting weeks or months)
• Nausea (with or without vomiting)
• Sinusitis (cottony drainage, soreness, pressure)
• Dizziness
• Night sweats
• Weight loss
• Skin lesions (rashes, scaling, plaques, papules, nodules, blisters, subcutaneous tumors or ulcers)
• Lethargy
• Apathy
• Sputum production
• Sharp chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Severe headache (meningitis, encephalitis, meningoencephalitis)
• Stiff neck (prolonged and severe nuchal rigidity)
• Muscle soreness (mild to severe, local or diffuse)
• Photophobia (excessive sensitivity to light)
• Blurred or double vision
• Eye irritation (soreness, redness)
• Focal neurological deficit
• Fever (delirium, hallucinations)
• Confusion (abnormal behavior changes, inappropriate mood swings)
• Seizures

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