MICROBIOLOGY
SYSTEMIC FUNGAL INFECTIONS
COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS AND BLASTOMYCOSIS
- Definition
- Epidemiology and transmission
- pathogenesis
- laboratory diagnosis
- treatment and prevention
, COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS
Coccidioidomycosis is a respiratory disease. It was first discovered by Alejandro Posadas who
was a medical intern in Bueno Aires in 1892. Posadas identified this infection from an Argentina
soldier who had lesions on the skin that were initially attributed to mycosis fungicides. This
disease is also called valley fever. Both Coccidiosis’s immitis and Coccidioides posadasii are
thermally dimorphic. The two fungi are identical but they have different growth rate with high
concentration of salt Coccidioides pasadasii grows mere slowly. The variants are Coccidioides
immitis which is the California variant while Coccidioides posadasii is a non-California variant
which is also found in South America, and Northern Mexico. The fungi reside in alkaline soil
specifically at warm and dry areas with low rainfall, low altitude and high summer temperatures.
They are found 10 to 30 centimeters beneath the surface.
EPIDEMIOLOGY AND TRANSMISSION
Coccidioides immitis is regularly found in Southwestern United States that is in California,
Arizona, and Texas and also in Central and South America and Mexico. It is also found out of
endemic areas. Coccidioidomycosis is transmitted through inhalation of airborne spores of
Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii that cause primary pulmonary infection and
sometimes cause hematogenous dissemination to other sites. Fully 60 per cent of pulmonary
Coccidioidomycosis is acquired asymptomatically, skin-test conversion being the only
manifestation of its occurrence (Drutz, D. J., & Catanzaro, A. 1978). The incubation period
varies from 7 to 21 days. The infection cannot be transmitted from person to person. People
working in areas that expose them to soil: such as construction workers, agricultural workers and
military forces during their field training. Other groups of people vulnerable to this disease are
SYSTEMIC FUNGAL INFECTIONS
COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS AND BLASTOMYCOSIS
- Definition
- Epidemiology and transmission
- pathogenesis
- laboratory diagnosis
- treatment and prevention
, COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS
Coccidioidomycosis is a respiratory disease. It was first discovered by Alejandro Posadas who
was a medical intern in Bueno Aires in 1892. Posadas identified this infection from an Argentina
soldier who had lesions on the skin that were initially attributed to mycosis fungicides. This
disease is also called valley fever. Both Coccidiosis’s immitis and Coccidioides posadasii are
thermally dimorphic. The two fungi are identical but they have different growth rate with high
concentration of salt Coccidioides pasadasii grows mere slowly. The variants are Coccidioides
immitis which is the California variant while Coccidioides posadasii is a non-California variant
which is also found in South America, and Northern Mexico. The fungi reside in alkaline soil
specifically at warm and dry areas with low rainfall, low altitude and high summer temperatures.
They are found 10 to 30 centimeters beneath the surface.
EPIDEMIOLOGY AND TRANSMISSION
Coccidioides immitis is regularly found in Southwestern United States that is in California,
Arizona, and Texas and also in Central and South America and Mexico. It is also found out of
endemic areas. Coccidioidomycosis is transmitted through inhalation of airborne spores of
Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii that cause primary pulmonary infection and
sometimes cause hematogenous dissemination to other sites. Fully 60 per cent of pulmonary
Coccidioidomycosis is acquired asymptomatically, skin-test conversion being the only
manifestation of its occurrence (Drutz, D. J., & Catanzaro, A. 1978). The incubation period
varies from 7 to 21 days. The infection cannot be transmitted from person to person. People
working in areas that expose them to soil: such as construction workers, agricultural workers and
military forces during their field training. Other groups of people vulnerable to this disease are
