CHARLOTTE — As western North Carolina continues to recover from Hurricane Helene, Duke University is focused on the lingering health risks disasters like it can leave behind.
In February, a group of researchers from the school of medicine traveled to Black Mountain to see what kind of mold or other fungi floodwaters may have brought into homes and buildings.
Vesper Fraunfelter said most of what they found was nuisance mold but depending on the species and the spores they produce, some could cause respiratory issues or were classified as World Health Organization priority pathogens.
“In these species, they are much more commonly infecting people,” Fraunfelter said.
Assistant professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology Dr. Asiya Gusa said that’s the crux of this research. She said it’s well understood that mold can be a big problem after a serious flood, but there’s been very little research into what exactly is growing, what specific health threats that fungal growth can pose.
“As these flooding events are increasingly more common, we want to understand there are really potential negative effects,” she said.
For the most part, Gusa said the fungi they’re finding generally grows naturally in the outside environment, flooding brings it in, and they tend to thrive in dark, damp, damaged buildings. That’s when she said things can start to get dangerous.
“The actual amount of exposure to airborne fungi and spores that’s much more concentrated in an indoor environment in the aftermath of a flooding event,” she said.
Fortunately, hospitals in western North Carolina have not reported an uptick in infections in the wake of Helene, though there has been a rise in reports of respiratory illnesses.
As global temperatures rise, Dr. Erica Washington said there’s additional concern that fungi are adapting to grow at higher temperatures and the risk that could pose to humans.
“The major hurdle that environmental fungi have to jump across is, can they survive at the human body temperature,” she said.
Using the samples from Black Mountain, the researchers are narrowing down those species that can grow in temperatures around 98 degrees and from there, they’ll work to determine what if any potential threat those species can pose.
Gusa said the project’s next step is figuring out what though species can grow on and whether certain carpets, drywall or other building material can mitigate the spread of these fungi.
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Andrew Jones is leading the research on that topic.
“The goal is to try to figure out what new building materials, what new plumbing materials, what new designs of a building we can have that will improve our health,” he said. “We can start saying here’s a new paint, here’s new drywall, here’s a new something.”
To Fraunfelter, the most important aspect of this research is how it can help western North Carolina recover. The research technician is from western North Carolina, and in the aftermath of the storm, they felt helpless.
“I’m getting to feel like I’m contributing in some way, because if we don’t know what’s making people sick, we can’t treat it,” Fraunfelter said.
Gusa said the researchers are planning to take another trip to Black Mountain in the coming months but for future projects, they’d like to expand the research to other flood-prone locations like the coast. That way they can learn how different environments impact growth differently.
“If we’re going to have these increased events, maybe there’s a way to mitigate and prevent these growths from happening so we can even cut off the possibility of folks being sick,” she said.
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