(CBS DETROIT) – A 29-year-old Michigan man died last week after a rare fungal infection.
Ian Pritchard’s family said he was initially hospitalized in Petosky before he was transported to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where he stayed from the end of November until his death on Saturday, Feb. 3.
His family said what they thought was just an abscess on his prostate was eventually found to be blastomycosis.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, blastomycosis is an infection caused by the fungus Blastomyces. Health officials say the fungus lives in moist soil as well as wood and leaves in the Midwest, south-central and southeastern states.
People can contract it by breathing in fungal spores in the air and can become serious if not treated.