In this Article

• What is histoplasmosis?
• What causes histoplasmosis?
• What are the symptoms and signs of histoplasmosis?
• Are there different types of histoplasmosis?
• How is histoplasmosis transmitted?
• How is histoplasmosis diagnosed?
• How is histoplasmosis treated?
• What are the complications seen with histoplasmosis?
• How is histoplasmosis prevented?
• What is the prognosis (outlook) for people with histoplasmosis?
• Where is more information available on histoplasmosis?
• Histoplasmosis At A Glance
• Histoplasmosis Glossary
• Histoplasmosis Index

What are the symptoms and signs of histoplasmosis?

About 90% of infections caused by H. capsulatum are asymptomatic (produce no symptoms). Occasionally, a few asymptomatic patients will show small scars in lung X-rays. Symptomatic people often develop fever, chills, dry cough, malaise, sweats, and abdominal pains about three to 14 days after exposure. If the disease progresses, symptoms such as weight loss, fatigue, dyspnea, chest pain, and reduced or loss of vision may occur. A sign of progression are patchy infiltrates seen on chest X-rays, usually in the lower lung fields. Other symptoms that can occur, especially in patients that are immunosuppressed, are mouth ulcers, fevers, headaches, confusion, seizures, encephalopathy, and infrequently, death.

Are there different types of histoplasmosis?

Histoplasmosis has three major types of disease, and these three have other subtypes included in them. They are summarized with their subtypes as follows:

• acute pulmonary histoplasmosis; asymptomatic and symptomatic;



• chronic pulmonary histoplasmosis; chronic lung symptoms and occasionally ocular involvement termed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome; and



• progressive disseminated histoplasmosis: chronic progressive disseminated histoplasmosis with oropharyngeal lesions or ulcers; subacute progressive disseminated histoplasmosis with intestinal, adrenal, cardiac or central nervous system (CNS) involvement; and acute progressive disseminated histoplasmosis with encephalopathy, meningitis, mass lesions and cutaneous (skin) lesions.

Drawings and pictures of some of the different types of histoplasmosis are available at the last Web site listed below.