Histoplasmosis (cont.)
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.
Next: How is histoplasmosis diagnosed? »
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