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Archive for February 15th, 2010

In the deserts of the Southwestern United States, Mexico, and different parts of South America exists a particularly nasty variety of mold that can cause an extremely serious skin disease. This is Coccidioides immitis and if left untreated, it can turn fatal.

Coccidioidomycosis (or Valley Fever) is caused by inhaling the spores of C. immitis. The clinical features of this disease (when there are any symptoms at all) usually include rashes, headaches, coughing, fever, and myalgia.

Myalgia is another name for muscle pain and this can be the cause of many different disorders and diseases. The most frequent cause of this is the extensive use of a certain muscle or a set of muscles.

If the patient does not have a history of accidents, then it is probably due to a viral or a bacterial infection. If it is a long term symptom, then it could be a symptom of some kind of nutritional deficiency.

One of the most common causes of the inhalation of the C. immitis spores is the disturbance of contaminated, dusty soil.

This can be due to either a person exposing themselves to the soil while in the process of work, recreation, or as a result of a natural disaster such as an earthquake or a dust storm. The states where the disease is known to be endemic are California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

The incidence of this disease in the year 1995 in Arizona was 15 infections per 100,000 people.

Those at risk for this disease are those who work in areas where the disease is endemic and do work that exposes them to contaminated dust and soil, which are construction workers, archeologists, or any kind of agricultural worker.

Pregnant women that are in their third trimester, Asians, African Americans, and anyone who has a weakened immune system are also particularly at risk to contract this disease.

Some people who contract this disease do not recover and this can bring on chronic pulmonary infection or even a disseminated infection that can be located all over the body.

If not treated or a person with HIV or AIDs does not recover completely from this disease, severe pulmonary disease may surface.

In 2001, a group of archeologists who had been working at a dig in Utah developed the disease within about two weeks of being exposed to the contaminated soil. Since then, there has been a new regulation put into place requiring the watering of the soil before digging can begin and for the use of breathing masks.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood and water damage cleanup and
water damage restoration> companies across the united states.

Mold has been around since before us and has been having an effect on us since the time of Moses, yet we have only recently begun to see the true effects of mold on the human body.

Mold not only affects the human body, but also the bodies of animals, such as our dogs, cats, and even our birds. We have become aware that mold is not something that we want living where we do, but a lot of us do not feel that there is much that we can do about it.

Most molds fit into three different categories and are classified according to what kind of effect they have on us and our health.

Molds that are considered toxic produce what are called mycotoxins and even though these molds rarely occur where we live, they can cause all kinds of health complications and some of these can lead to death in the most serious of circumstances.

Penicilliosis is native to the region of Southeast Asia and has a fairly high mortality rate without treatment, but even with treatment the number of deaths total about one in five.

Another serious occurrence associated with mold is called aspergilloma and it happens when fungus begins to grow in balls inside any cavities existing in the body, particularly the lungs. Stachybotrys mold produces mycotoxins and is the most famous of the different black molds that exist and has been referenced by the media as toxic black mold.

Allergenic molds seem to affect people the most often and as their name implies, they usually cause some common allergy symptoms, but can be quite a nuisance.

They can aggravate existing allergies or asthma, making the symptoms that a person already has become worse over time. Anti-histamines may help a small amount, but getting rid of the contamination is usually the only way to keep the symptoms from returning.

Pathogenic molds are less rare than toxic molds or allergenic molds, but they can be just as dangerous in people that have compromised immune systems such as those who are HIV-positive or has AIDS, cancer, or is recovering from surgery of any kind. The elderly, pets, and small children are also more at risk than a normal healthy adult person would be.

If you believe that mold exists in your home, you should perform some do-it-yourself mold tests and when you get the results back, hire a professional to get rid of the infestation as soon as possible.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Houston Fire Damage Water Restoration Contractor companies and
Los Angeles Water Damage and Restoration Services.

Sometimes we look into the backs of our closets while we are cleaning them out and we discover an old article of clothing with a fuzzy substance all over it. If you find something like this in the back of your closet, the best thing to do is drop it immediately and go wash your hands. What you were handling was a piece of clothing that has been contaminated with mold and it has been advised to not touch mold spores with your bare hands. This can possibly cause an allergic reaction or just some skin rashes, but either way, there will probably be consequences to deal with.

Most items of clothing that are contaminated with mold can be cleaned and the mold done away with, but most of the time the mold ends up leaving stains. Using bleach to remove the stains can be effective if you are dealing with mold on white clothing, but this is not always the case and chlorine bleach is not effective in killing molds on porous surfaces. You can use a brush to remove the majority of the mold and put a pre-wash spray on it; allow this to soak for about 45 minutes and put it through the washing machine. After this, allow them to dry outside naturally in the sun. Using an artificial source of heat to dry the clothes can set the stain deeper into the fabric and if you are dealing with white clothing, the sun can actually help to bleach the fabric further.

If you are looking to remove the mold and mold stains from something that was made with real leather, you are probably not going to have any luck. Items made out of leather become discolored very easily and mold does a good job of this. They cannot usually be restored after coming into contact with mold.

You can clean off upholstery or curtains that have come into contact with mold using the same method described above and one of the best purchases you can make to keep your home mold free is a vacuum that has a HEPA filter in it. Use this vacuum and its brush attachment to suck up all the mold and its spores; the filter will make sure that the spores are not re-released into the air in your home after being collected.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood and water damage cleanup and
water damage restoration> companies across the united states.