Fungal Blastomycosis

Fungal blastomycosis is a potentially dangerous fungal infection that affects the lungs and skin. It can be difficult to diagnose because it is not common and presents a wide variety of symptoms depending on the affected individual. The condition is treatable with drugs but there is no known preventative measure against it.

Cause

• Fungal blastomycosis is caused by the fungus blastomyces dermatitidis. The condition first takes hold when the affected individual inhales the spores of blastomyces dermatitidis, which can be stirred-up when the soil they are in is disturbed. The spores create an infection in the lung of the affected individual. An infection of this type cannot be transferred from one infected individual to another, nor from other affected animals, such as dogs.

Symptoms

• The symptoms of fungal blastomycosis vary. Some affected individuals do not display any symptoms at all. Other victims of the fungus develop a serious lung infection which leads to a display of many symptoms including coughing (including coughing up blood), fever, weight loss, aches, chest pain, sweating and shortness of breath. The infection may spread to the skin, resulting in visible skin lesions in spots such as the face, hands and feet. The infection can spread to the central nervous system, at which point the condition becomes life-threatening.

Diagnosis

• Individuals who display no symptoms of infection are usually only diagnosed accidentally in a blood test or X-ray. Individuals who display symptoms will show irregularities in a chest X-ray, but the condition is only definitively diagnosed by testing for the presence of the fungus in a sample of infected tissue or infected fluid coughed up from the lungs. Fungal blastomycosis can sometimes appear to be either lung cancer or tuberculosis. Blood tests and skin tests on non-infected tissue are not effective tests for diagnosis of fungal blastomycosis.

Treatment

• Fungal blastomycosis is treatable with the use of anti-fungal drugs. Itraconazole, amphotericin B, and fluconazole are all drugs used in the treatment of this condition. Amphotericin B is the treatment of choice for individuals who are extremely ill with the condition.

Prevention

• There is no known way to avoid contracting fungal blastomycosis beyond avoiding areas where the fungus is known to be present and limiting the amount of soil disturbed. Cases of the condition occur in the Mississippi River Valley and in the southeastern part of the United States.