Rabies and Spelunking: An important query

[Thomas E. Simms]

A colleague, who is a spelunker, offers the following:

         Following the 1994 NSS (National Speleological Society) Convention
         in Brackettville, TX, a cluster of acute histoplasmosis among
         cavers was documented.  Most had explored 2 caves that had a
         narrow tunnel crawl.  This was reported by CDC investigators in a
         poster session at 35th ICAAC.
         Believe the poster may have referred to other types of agents
         potentially aerosolized.  The authors, D.A. Ashford, R.A. Hajjeh,
         M.F. Kelley et al, may have further information.  There are also
         several bulletin boards and newsgroups directed toward the caving
         community that may be a useful source of information for your
         purposes (e.g., cavers at orion.ditell.com); also there is a web site
         that connects to all the caving related pages
         (http//hum.amu.edu.pl/~sgp/spec/links.html) including the NSS
         homepage.

Tom Simms                           FFFF   DDD      A
TES at FDADR.CDRH.FDA.GOV              F      D  D    A A
Biologist, Microbiology Branch      FFFF   D   D  AAAAA
DCLD, ODE, CDRH, FDA, HHS           F      D  D   A   A
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Disclaimer:
The preceding comments are personal opinion and are not meant to
express the policies of the FDA.
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