There are over 100,000 species of fungi. Many fungi are good and useful (edible mushrooms would be an example of these) while some cause problems (some fungi can injure plants and humans). Every week the IEQ Review will describe a specific microorganism, its morphological origin and potential health effects.  If you would like to know about a specific organism and/or would like it published in The IEQ Review please email Dr. Rajiv Sahay with the Environmental Diagnostics Laboratory (EDL) at Pure Air Control Services laboratory@pureaircontrols.com.

This week we will cover...

Coccidioides immitis
 


Coccidioidomycosis, the disease caused by a pathogenic fungus called Coccidioides immitis , is also known as Valley Fever because the organism is prevalent in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California.  The fungus, however, can also be reported from certain parts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.  Some endemic regions are also found in South America.  C. immitis infections are contracted almost exclusively by the respiratory route.  The clinical spectrum of disease is broad, ranging from an asymptomatic infection to a rapidly fatal mycosis.  The most common clinical presentation is self-limited pneumonia, but in some cases the fungus can cause chronic cavitary pulmonary disease or disseminate beyond the lungs to the skin, bones, meninges and other body organs. Coccidioides immitis is a primary fungal pathogen can be isolated from microbially depauperate soils of hot, semi-arid regions.  Like most medically-important fungi that cause systemic disease, C. immitis demonstrates different morphologies in its saprobic and parasitic phases, but is distinguished from other fungal pathogens by the unique morphogenetic features of its growth in host tissue.