Health experts have been warning Australians about the health effects of mould in homes after unexpectedly wet autumn weather. One young woman in Canberra has made a startling and potentially life-threatening discovery after being exposed to mould.
The woman had been experiencing intense chest pains, and despite three different courses of antibiotics, the issue failed to resolve. She persisted and finally had doctors discover that she had mould spores growing in her lungs, which were revealed on an X-Ray.
She told Channel Nine that she was “pretty lucky at that point even to be alive.”
She explained that two years later, she is still affected by the diagnosis. “I have permanent scarring in my lungs. If I breathe too hard or exercise too hard, that will pull on the scarring and cause a lot of pain,” she said.
“It’s never going to go away, and I’m never going to be able to live life without that pain.”
Doctors have been warning Aussies to be mindful of exposure to mould after eastern states battle through their wettest start to a year on record.
One lung disease specialist explained that “People can develop a chronic lung fibrosis which will limit their respiratory capacity and result in chronic breathlessness, and potentially death as the fibrosis progresses.”
“It is obviously treatable, [but] if people are unlucky and are immunosuppressed and they develop an invasive aspergillosis, then these people can die suddenly if a blood vessel is invaded by the fungus and they develop a fatal pulmonary haemorrhage.”