A common soil fungus sickened more than 150 Michigan paper mill workers, and killed one, in what health officials called the largest such outbreak in U.S. history, but the exact cause remains elusive, they said this week.
The Centers for Disease Control said a 2022-23 outbreak of blastomycosis at Escanaba’s Billerud Paper infected at least 162 people from November 2022 to May 2023. Among those infected by the fungus Blastomyces, 18 were hospitalized and one person died.