RT Book, Section
A1 Pfaller, Michael A.
A2 Wallace, Robert B.
SR Print(0)
ID 1141967652
T1 Opportunistic Fungal Infections
T2 Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health and Preventive Medicine, 15e
YR 2017
FD 2017
PB McGraw-Hill Medical
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071441988
LK accessbiomedicalscience.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1141967652
RD 2024/04/16
AB Fungal  infections,  or  mycoses,  may  be  broken  into  two  broad  categories:  (a)  endemic  and  (b)  opportunistic.  The  endemic  mycoses  are  those  in  which  susceptibility  to  the  infection  is  acquired  by  living  in  a  geographic  area  constituting  the  natural  habitat  of  the  particular  fungus.  The  most  commonly  encountered  endemic  mycoses  in  North  America  are  due  to  Histoplasma  capsulatum,  Coccidioides  immitis/posadasii,  Blastomyces  dermatitidis,  and  Sporothrix  schenckii.  Infection  due  to  these  agents  is  usually  acquired  by  inhalation  of  conidia  from  an  environmental  source.  Although  infections  with  these  fungal  pathogens  are  clearly  important,  a  more  pressing  problem  now  is  that  of  the  opportunistic  mycoses,  which  carry  a  particularly  high  mortality  and  appear  to  be  increasing  significantly.