A deadly fungus that kills up to one in five people it infects may be more common than previously thought, a study suggests.

People catch the fungus behind blastomycosis by breathing in spores released by disturbed rotten wood or leaf litter, which can then take root in the lungs and spread to the skin, brain and spinal cord — causing deadly pnuemonia and inflammation.

Officials have previously suggested the disease is not common, and only track the infection in five states — mostly in the mid-West.

But researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now suggest the opposite, after finding the fungus was more common in Vermont than in four of the five states where it is tracked.

An examination of tens of thousands of health insurance claims showed the disease had a rate of 1.8 cases per 100,000 people in Vermont from 2011 to 2018.

But in 2019 and 2020, this surged to three cases per 100,000.

For comparison, in four of the monitoring states — Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan and Minnesota — the rate did not rise above one per 100,000 in the same period.

It was only higher in Wisconsin, where the average was around three per 100,000.

Writing in the paper, the researchers said: ‘Our findings… align with a growing body of evidence suggesting that the burden of endemic blastomycosis is greater than commonly appreciated.

‘These results challenge routine assumptions about epidemiology and ecology of this disease and reflect a need for future studies.’

They added: ‘Clinicians should consider blastomycosis in patients with compatible signs and symptoms.’

Blastomycosis is a disease caused by the fungus Blastomyces, which can lurk around waterways and in moist soil and leaf litter.

Patients who are infected with the fungus may suffer from a mild to moderate infection causing a cough, fever and chills.

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