(NewsNation) — Twelve of 13 members of one family fell ill upon returning to the United States from a Costa Rica trip in late December. A bat-filled cave could be the culprit for the mystery sickness.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published last week found confirmed or likely cases of histoplasmosis, a fungal infection primarily in the lungs and linked the group’s exposure to a bat-colonized cave the family visited on Dec. 24.
The group had toured the Venado Caves, a popular tourist destination previously linked to a histoplasmosis outbreak. Histoplasmosis is caused by organisms often found in contaminated soil…