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This document is also available as a PDF. FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL
GAZETTE
RARE FUNGUS KILLED BABIES IN
CLEVELAND
Wednesday, September 13, 1995
Section: METRO BRIEFS
Page: 1C
From staff and wire reports Researchers are almost certain a rare fungus caused the deaths of two infants
and made 12 others ill. Researchers said Monday they believe the fungus caused the rare bleeding
lung illness in babies in Cleveland, East Cleveland and Garfield Heights since
1993.
The fungus, Stachybotrys atra, is a black, slimy mold that grows only under
very wet conditions and only on cellulose materials such as wood and paper. The disease is so rare that we may never be 100 percent sure of the cause,
but this is likely to be as close as we ever get,'' said Timothy Horgan,
Cuyahoga County health commissioner. Researchers from Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital worked with the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to pinpoint the
cause of the sickness, known as pulmonary hemosiderosis. The symptoms are
bleeding in the lungs that causes the babies to cough up blood. During the same period the 14 cases were reported in Cleveland - January
1993 to January 1995 - only 31 other cases appeared nationwide. Dr. Dorr Dearborn of Rainbow hospital said the fungus was found in all but
one of the houses where the infected babies lived. Secondary tobacco smoke in homes where the fungus existed seemed to
increase the likelihood of illness, Dearborn said. The researchers also found
that breast-feeding might offer some protection to babies exposed to the
fungus, he said. OHIO Fugitive nabbed An Edon man was arrested Monday after police said he was wanted in West
Virginia on felony sexual assault charges. Charles Myers, age unknown, was 1 of 3 7/25/99 6:03 PM NewsLibrary Document Delivery http://newslibrary.krmediastream.com/cgi...cument/nl2_auth?DBLIST=jg95&DOCNUM=10598 arrested by officers from the Williams County Sheriff's Department after
police ran a computer check on him when he hit a deer with his car. Officers
said police in West Virginia had been looking for Myers for years. He is being
held at Community Corrections of Northwest Ohio. Health fair set The Van Wert County Health fair will be from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at
Vantage Vocational School. Featuring a pancake breakfast and plenty of
information about health, the fair also offers a number of screenings, including
a blood chemistry profile for $25 and free hearing and body fa t tests. For
more information, call the American Red Cross at 238-9977. Law protested Conscientious objectors are angry about a new state law they say will give
military recruiters too much information about high school students.
Beginning Thursday, school boards must release the name and address of any
student in grades 10 through 12 to recruiters upon request - unless the student
or a parent tells the boards not to release the information. Michael Hawk of
the Dayton office of the American Friends Service Committee, a
Philadelphia-based organization that works to build public resistance to
militarism, said the law gives recruiters too much access. River study set An interstate commission plans to study two specific substances polluting the
Ohio River and its tributaries, with a fraction of the money it requested for the
project, an agency official said Tuesday. The study by the Ohio River Valley
Water Sanitation Commission is part of a long-term program to reduce dioxin,
an industrial contaminant believed to cause cancer, and atrazine, a herbicide
used in growing corn and soybeans. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency said in May that it had found fish in the Ohio River and in the
Kanawha River in West Virginia had high concentrations of dioxin. It asked
the commission to study the source but provided only $50,000 for the study. Dismissal disputed A woman who discovered that confidential information had been improperly
stored in a state health department office says she was dismissed a week later.
Audra Hood was dismissed one week after reporting that she had found
sensitive information about HIV patients in an unlocked desk at the
department's AIDS prevention unit, according to news reports. Department
spokesman Randy Hertzer said Hood was a contract employee whose work
was essentially complete. The State Highway Patrol, acting at the Health
Department's request, is investigating two instances in which confidential
information allegedly was mishandled. Shell causes furor 2 of 3 7/25/99 6:03 PM NewsLibrary Document Delivery http://newslibrary.krmediastream.com/cgi...cument/nl2_auth?DBLIST=jg95&DOCNUM=10598 A 6-year-old Toledo boy told his school bus driver that he wanted to show her
a bullet he was toting for show-and-tell. But what Tim Nicolls pulled out of
his pocket Monday was no bullet. It was a 20 mm cannon shell. Luckily, the
shell was a dud, or it could have blown the bus up, police said. At first, police
believed the shell was live. The Toledo police bomb squad removed the shell,
which was taken to a police munitions storage area. A bomb expert said
Tuesday it was empty, Noble said. The boy's parents bought the shell Sunday
for $10 from a vendor at the Toledo Air Show. All content © 1995 FORT WAYNE - THE JOURNAL GAZETTE and may not be republished
without permission. All archives are stored on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream Inc., a
Knight-Ridder Inc. company. 3 of 3 7/25/99 6:03 PM |
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