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Published March 02, 2010, 08:30 AM

Second courthouse worker gets sick from bat guano

A second employee in the McLean County Courthouse has been diagnosed with a serious illness caused by bat droppings. The County Commission plans to meet Tuesday night to talk about what to do.

WASHBURN, N.D. (AP) — A second employee in the McLean County Courthouse has been diagnosed with a serious illness caused by bat droppings. The County Commission plans to meet Tuesday night to talk about what to do.

The county has battled a bat problem for years, bringing in specialists to try to seal the old building, trap the bats and remove a thick covering of guano in the courthouse attic. Voters in 2002 rejected building a new courthouse.

Commissioner Julie Hudson-Schenfisch says a second worker has been diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota with the fungal infection histoplasmosis, caused by breathing in spores from bat guano. She says the commission must take some sort of action.

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