An outbreak of respiratory diseases among workers at a water-damaged building - A case report

We describe a military hospital building with severe, repeated and enduring water and mold damage, and the symptoms and diseases found among 14 person s who were employed at the building. The exposure of the employees was eval uated by measuring the serum immunoglobulin G (IgG)-antibodies against eigh t spieces of mold and yeast common in Finnish water and mold damaged buildi ngs and by sampling airborne viable microbes within the hospital. The most abundant spieces was Sporobolomyces salmonicolor. All but one of the employ ees reported some building-related symptoms, the most common being a cough which was reported by nine subjects. Four new cases of asthma, confirmed by S. salmonicolor inhalation provocation tests, one of whom was also found t o have alveolitis, were found among the hospital personnel. In addition, se ven other workers with newly diagnosed rhinitis reacted positively in nasal S. salmonicolor provocation tests. Skin prick tests by Sporobolomyces were negative among all 14 workers. Exposure of the workers to mold and yeast i n the indoor air caused an outbreak of occupational diseases were not immun oglobulin E (IgE)-mediated but might have been borne by some other, as yet unexplained, mechanism.