Tornado-ravaged Joplin confronts new scourge: fungus

They survived the tornado but not the fungus it left behind.

Health officials in Joplin attribute three or four deaths to zygomycosis, a rapidly spreading and often fatal fungal infection. “It’s difficult to say if it killed them, but it definitely was a contributing factor,” Dr. Uwe Schmidt tells the Springfield News-Leader. Schmidt, an infectious disease specialist, says he has treated five patients and knew of four cases that had been found at another hospital.