Year: 2012
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Pulmonary Infection 86infections are acquired by inhalation of fungi from contaminated soil, and severity of disease generally correlates with the amount of exposure to the pathogen.Examples of organisms that are opportunistic pulmonary fungal pathogens include Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Pneumocystis, and Rhizopus.C. neoformans is found ubiquitously in the soil, usually in soil contaminated with pigeon guano (Perfect and Casadevall, 2002).These fungi primarily cause disease in individuals with compromised immune systems.Most cryptococcal infections are asymptomatic, and the organism typically causes disease in immune compromised patients, such as AIDS patients, solid organ transplant patients on immune-suppressive drugs, or patients receiving chemotherapy (Levitz, 1991;Mitchell and Perfect, 1995;Singh et al., 1997;Shoham and Levitz, 2005).A. fumigatus is ubiquitously found in the environment, and is normally found in association with decaying wood and plant matter (Deacon et al., 2009).However, A. fumigatus can cause severe respiratory infections in cases of massive exposure or immune deficiency, such as neutropenia, due to chemotherapy, AIDS, or bone marrow transplant therapy (Denning, 1996;Almyroudis et al., 2005;Magill et al., 2008).Pneumocystis infection is acquired by inhalation of organisms from a yet unknown source (Keely et al., 1995; reviewed in Kelly and Shellito, 2010).Most Pneumocystis infections occur in immunosuppressed individuals due to either HIV or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Leigh et al., 1993;Nevez et al.,
Source: InTech eBooks
DOI: 10.5772/30280
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W1515491316