A tropical and potentially lethal fungus that has mysteriously made a home on Canada's temperate West Coast has prompted foreign medical experts to issue a worldwide alert to doctors and tourists.

The warning comes after a 51-year-old Danish visitor contracted the rare and life-threatening fungal infection on Vancouver Island. In the January issue of the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, published monthly by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors in Denmark -- who eventually found clumps of the fungus growing in the man's chest -- have cited the island as a potential health risk to travelers.

Cryptococcus gattii, a microscopic pathogen normally found in tropical or subtropical locales in Australia, Africa, India or South America, was first identified on Vancouver Island in 2001. Many suspect that global warming has recently enabled the one-celled organism to thrive in the trees, soil, water and air along the island's east coast.

While chances of contracting C. gattii remain low, the airborne cells and spores can lodge deep in the lungs, leading to pneumonia. The fungus can also attack the central nervous system and result in meningitis. As of December, 165 people had been infected and eight have died.

Animals have been hardest hit. In Washington state, C. gattii killed a cat and sickened two others in Whatcom County, a former state public health veterinarian, Almira Jane Leslie, told The Herald of Everett last fall.

The fungus also has infected dogs, llamas, ferrets, pet birds and horses, and the corpses of infected porpoises have washed ashore, making this one of the world's few, true multispecies outbreaks.

Human cases have emerged on the B.C. mainland and in Oregon and Washington state.

"We are now up to 33 cases per million. We surpass any other place in the world," said Dr. Pamela Kibsey, medical director of microbiology at the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

Still, Dr. Murray Fyfe, medical health officer for the health authority, said the Danish report should be put in perspective. "You are more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash going to the park," he said.

Dave Petryk, president and chief executive of Tourism Vancouver Island, said the Danish alert should "not dissuade travelers from visiting the island." He said that the risk of infection is extremely low and that "people travel to other destinations with far worse health risks."

The Danish man who prompted the alert was admitted to the hospital with fever and chest pains radiating to his left shoulder. Over the next five days, as his fever spiked and he struggled to breathe, a lung biopsy revealed that he was infected with C. gattii cells he inhaled during his trip to Canada.

Dr. Jens Lindberg and colleagues from Denmark's Herning Hospital "recommend tourists and medical staff of health care centers worldwide be alert for symptoms of cryptococcosis after travel to Vancouver Island."

Yet there's evidence that awareness still lags in Canada and even on the island itself.

Infections are usually curable with antifungal drugs when caught early.