Though proximity to open watersheds was linked to incidence in some areas, suggesting that outdoor activity within the city may be connected to many cases, there is also an increasing body of evidence that even the interiors of buildings may be risk areas. An early case concerned a prisoner who was confined to prison during the whole of his likely blastomycotic incubation period. An epidemiological survey found that although many patients who contracted blastomycosis had engaged in fishing, hunting, gardening, outdoor work and excavation, the most strongly linked association in patients was living or visiting near waterways. Based on a similar finding in a Louisiana study, it has been suggested that place of residence might be the most important single factor in blastomycosis epidemiology in north central Wisconsin. Follow-up epidemiological and case studies indicated that clusters of cases were often associated with particular domiciles, often spread out over a period of years, and that there were uncommon but regularly occurring cases in which pets kept mostly or entirely indoors, in particular cats, contracted blastomycosis. The occurrence of blastomycosis, then, is an issue strongly linked to housing and domestic circumstances. Seasonal trends
Seasonality and weather also appear to be linked to contraction of blastomycosis. Many studies have suggested an association between blastomycosis contraction and cool to moderately warm, moist periods of the spring and autumn or, in relatively warm winter areas. However, the entire summer or a known summer exposure date is included in the association in some studies. Occasional studies fail to detect a seasonal link.
The Canadian data in some areas may be confounded or explained by the tendency to establish indigenous communities in wooded, riparian, northern areas corresponding to the core habitat of B. dermatitidis, often with known B. dermatitidis habitats such as woodpiles and beaver constructions in the near vicinity. Communicability
Blastomycosis is not considered contagious, either among humans or between animals and humans. However, there are a very small number of cases of human-to-human transmission of B. dermatitidis related to dermal contact or sexual transmission of disseminated blastomycosis of the genital tract among spouses. History
The organisms causing blastomycosis have existed for millions of years. The pathogenic group of onygenalean fungi that give rise to conditions including blastomycosis and histoplasmosis emerged approximately 150 million years ago. The most closely related blastomycosis-causing fungi, Blastomyces dermatitidis and Blastomyces gilchristii, diverged during the Pleistocene, approximately 1.9 million years ago.At the Koster Site in Illinois, evidence pointing to possible blastomycosis infections among Late Woodland Native Americans has been identified. At that site, Dr. Jane Buikstra found evidence for what may have been an epidemic of a serious spinal disease in adolescents and young adults. Several of the skeletons showed lesions in the spinal vertebrae in the lower back. There are two modern diseases that produce lesions in the bone similar to the ones Dr. Buikstra found in these prehistoric specimens: spinal TB and blastomycosis. The bony lesions in these two diseases are practically identical.