Season 3, Episode 11: Adrift
Wes goes mad and smashes up his office. It turns out that both he and the bears have been exposed to a grass mold that contains the same hallucinogen as LSD. Meanwhile, David and Carlos go to Nova Scotia to investigate a recently docked ship with missing and dead crew. The crew somehow contracted a variant of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and became so itchy that they scratched off patches of their skin. Soon after, Carlos becomes itchy and discovers giant boils on his back.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO GO MAD BY INHALING FUNGUS?
 Image provided courtesy of Shaftesbury Films. |
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Wes breaks a sweat during his |
What is ergot?
Ergot is a common name for about 50 species of fungus that grow on rye, wheat and barley. The common rye-infecting ergot is called Claviceps purpurea. The fungus infects developing grain kernels and takes over the husk. Ingesting infected grains or food made from infected grains can cause an illness known as ergotism.
There are two types of ergot poisoning. One type causes loss of blood flow to the extremities, which, if not treated, can lead to gangrene; this condition commonly is called St. Anthony’s fire due to the burning sensations it causes in a poisoned person’s limbs. The other type of ergot poisoning causes convulsions.
First recorded in the Middle Ages, when periodic ergotism epidemics were common in Europe, ergot has been the cause of many epidemics throughout history. Ergotism is thought by some scholars to be the cause of the madness in women and girls accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Agricultural advances like improved farming techniques and curbing crop disease have minimized these epidemics; the last occurrence of widespread ergotism was in 1926-7 in Russia.
As early as the 1500s, ergot was used as medicine, to induce childbirth or abortions. In the 1930s, Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann “discovered” a chemical called lysergic acid diethylamide—a.k.a. LSD—while researching the active ingredients of ergot. While ergot does not contain LSD, a naturally occurring chemical in ergot can be used to manufacture LSD.
How does LSD cause hallucinations?
This is an area still under much investigation. LSD stimulates nerve cells in the brain, which has a number of effects, including pupil dilation and rises in body temperature and blood sugar. LSD also has been shown to block the action of the brain chemical serotonin, which is involved in controlling moods, appetite and sexual drive. Chemicals and cells in the brain involved in the reward system that influence addictive behaviors also respond to LSD.
The chemical structure of LSD is similar to other chemicals that cause hallucinations: mescaline, which is derived from certain cacti, and psilocybin, the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms.
So ...
Eating ergot, a fungus that lives on wild grasses and grains, can affect one’s brain chemistry, which can affect behavior. Ergot contains a natural chemical related to the active ingredient in LSD that interferes with nerve cell function.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO CATCH CRIMEAN-CONGO HEMORRHAGIC FEVER FROM DEAD BODIES?
 Image provided courtesy of Shaftesbury Films. |
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Carlos discovers a dead sailor, half-clothed and covered in boils. |
What is Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever?
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a disease caused by a virus in the Bunyaviridae family that primarily infects animals and occasionally also infects people. The disease was independently discovered twice, first in Crimea in 1944 and then in the Congo in 1969. Today the disease is endemic in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and central Africa.
CCHF symptoms come on within three days of infection and include headache, fever, pain in the back, joints and stomach, and vomiting. Other symptoms include red eyes, face, and throat and red spots on the palate, as well as uncontrolled bleeding. Some patients – about 75 percent – suffer only flu-like symptoms, which improve after about a week. Others, however, experience severe hemorrhaging, don’t recover after the first week and die in the second week of being sick.
How is it transmitted?
Hard ticks known as ixodid ticks harbor and transmit the virus, which commonly infects cattle, goats, sheep and rabbits, but can also infect people. People who come in contact with infected blood or other bodily fluids (animal or human) also can catch the disease.
So ...
Yes, it is possible to catch Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever from dead bodies if a person comes in contact with infected blood or body fluids from those bodies.
- by Audrey M. Huang, Ph.D.
Want to read and learn more?
To learn more about ergot of cereals and grasses, visit:
http://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/str-rst/ergot/ergot-eng.htm
To read about the possible influence of ergot on the Salem witch trials, visit:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_salem/index.html
To learn about LSD, visit:
http://www.camh.net/About_Addiction_Mental_Health/Drug_and_Addiction_Information/lsd_dyk.html
To learn more about Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, visit these sites:
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/msds-ftss/msds46e.html
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs208/en/
