Wind instruments are reservoirs of germs

Breathless, complaining of heavy coughing fits, an American clarinet player presented himself urgently to the Atlanta hospital. The 68-year-old had had these symptoms for over a year, and no conventional treatment seemed to be working, including inhalers, steroids and antibiotics. When the doctors x-rayed the musician’s lungs, they observed lots of areas clogged with mucus, and even calcified lymph nodes.

The specialists initially thought that this man had bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, a condition caused by an allergy to the fungi Aspergillus fumigatus, and which usually develops as a result of other conditions such as asthma or cystic fibrosis. Until they hear about the clarinet. Intrigued, they finally understood that the player had become allergic to the microscopic fungi Alternaria and Curvularia which had invaded his clarinet, and in particular the reed of the instrument. “The musician had not cleaned his instrument for 30 years! ”, Reported Dr. Marissa Shams, asthma specialist at Emory University in Atlanta, at an annual conference of allergists in Baltimore. “But he played very regularly, practically every night, we can say that he breathed in his mushrooms …”

The musician was treated with oral corticosteroids, but it was only after sterilizing his favorite instrument that his health really improved. The scientists, who described his ordeal during the congress, took the opportunity to remind that this type of mishap is not so rare among players of wind instruments.
Last March, John Shone, a 78-year-old bagpiper, reported that he nearly died after contacting a fungal lung infection from his dirty instrument. In 2011, researchers from Tufts University (United States) demonstrated that microbes, such as the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis, can survive for several hours up to several days in the mouthpiece or ducts of wind instruments.
So, to have flawless lung health, you have to think about cleaning your saxophone, flute or clarinet!