Histoplasmosis
What life-threatening illness can you get from repotting plants, attending a rodeo or going spelunking? If you didn't guess histoplasmosis, you're not alone - Nancy Shute
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Why Was Her Thumb Turning Black?
The 72-year-old woman carefully loosened the bandage she had wrapped around her thumb. As she gently revealed the injured finger, her daughter gasped. The top third of what should have been the fleshy part looked eaten away. The flesh that remained was black and hard. A foul odor emanated from the wound. “Yesterday I thought there was a dead mouse in my living room,” the woman told her daughter. “Then I realized it was my thumb.” She couldn’t do anything with that hand now, not even work in her garden. It was very upsetting.
Black Thumb
The daughter wondered: Was this gangrene? Was her mother going to lose her thumb? She took out her phone and snapped a picture…
Resources
A zebra amongst horses! Histoplasma what the heck is that?
Infection with H. capsulatum can range from asymptomatic to severe life-threatening infection. It is called a dimorphic fungus because it has two different ways of growing depending on the temperature; at body temperature it grows like yeast whereas at lower temperatures it grows as a mould. It is the mould form which is infectious.
Dangerous Fungus Makes A Surprise Appearance In Montana
What life-threatening illness can you get from repotting plants, attending a rodeo or going spelunking? If you didn't guess histoplasmosis, you're not alone.
Kentucky Birds, New York Rats Raise Disease Risks, Climate Change Concerns
The disease du jour is a fungal infection called histoplasmosis. The pneumonia-like illness can be deadly to dogs, and also serious for humans if left untreated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Man Develops Rare Infection 30 Years After First Exposure
An uncommon fungal infection appears to have lingered in one man's body for 30 years before making itself known in his brain — and a heart transplant may have played a role in making him sick, a new report of the man's case reveals.
Mississippi River Valley Histoplasmosis
The allure of fresh eggs is almost irresistible to some. If you have backyard chickens, keep in mind their droppings are loaded with the potential to grow histoplasma capsulatum, the fungus that causes Histoplasmosis. To avoid this as much as possible, it is very important to keep your chicken coop clean. If you clean it regularly, before large deposits of droppings are allowed to build up, you will greatly reduce your risk.
Solving The Mystery Of 'Bamboo Bonfire' Lung Disease
Caused by spores from a fungus called Histoplasma capsulatum, the disease is sometimes seen in patients with HIV/AIDS or other conditions where the immune system is compromised (It then exists as a yeast form once inside the body – for those so inclined, it's a dimorphic organism.). Outside of this scenario, histoplasmosis is also called Spelunker's lung or cave disease because its source, bat guano, is often encountered among cavers. But the fungus also grows very well in bird droppings.
What is histoplasmosis?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is ordering stronger warnings on a particular class of medications because of patient deaths from fungal infections.
Why Was Her Thumb Turning Black?
There are approximately 1.5 million different species of fungus on Earth, but only about 300 make people sick. Many live in soil and cause infection when the fungus is inhaled. Different fungi are common in different areas of the country. Histoplasmosis is one of the most common endemic fungal infections...
Wendy Sue's CT Pathology Blog
Anyone who has had a severe case of histoplasmosis with lung involvement should be regularly monitored for Ocular Histoplasmosis Syndrome (OHS), which is a leading cause of vision loss in Americans between the ages of 20 and 40.
CDC
People can get histoplasmosis after breathing in the microscopic fungal spores from the air. Although most people who breathe in the spores don’t get sick, those who do may have a fever, cough, and fatigue. Many people who get histoplasmosis will get better on their own without medication, but in some people, such as those who have weakened immune systems, the infection can become severe.
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