US Chef Dies Of Rare Fungal Infection, His Lungs Resembled "Swiss Cheese"

A 29-year-old chef died in Michigan after battling a rare fungal disease. Ian Pritchard contracted blastomycosis, a fungus-borne illness, sometime before Thanksgiving last year, reported New York Post. The disease wore out his respiratory system, eventually ravaging his lungs, the report said.

A GoFundMe page also raised around $20,000 for his family.

Pritchard, who was hospitalised last December, died on Sunday after the "blastomycosis fungal infection ravaged Ian's lungs beyond repair," the report said.

In a conversation with UpNorthLive, his father Ron Pritchard said, “They showed us a picture of his lungs, and they literally looked like Swiss cheese."

Initially, Ian Pritchard was admitted to a hospital in Petoskey, Michigan. However, his condition quickly deteriorated and was shifted to Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital.

The report added that people contract the illness by breathing in spores of the fungus, blastomyces, which resides in moist soil, decaying wood and leaves found in the Midwest and the South.

Talking about how his son contracted the disease, Ron Pritchard said, “It's in the air, it's in the trees, it's in the wet leaves, it's in the ground, it's in the mud, it's in, everywhere. Everywhere in northern Michigan – in fact, the Midwest – is covered in [Blastomyces].”

He added that the best-case scenario for his son was a lung transplant, but as per doctors that was only possible after the infection was gone.

The report said the infection typically develops within 2-15 weeks. In half of the patients, its symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath, and muscle aches. The disease has no cure, but it is treated with antifungal medications like Itraconazole, it said.