Fungal Disease

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Fungal Diseases

Content

  • Introduction
  • Aspergillosis
  • Candidiasis
  • Dermatomycosis

Introduction

  • Fungi are spore-bearing
  • Fungi may be unicellular or multicellular.
  • Mycology is a term used for the study of fungi and associated diseases.

Fungal diseases are of two types:

    1. Mycosis
    2. Food

Human infections are categorized into two types:

    1. Superficial infection
    2. Systemic infection
  • Superficial infection include fungal growth from skin, nails and hairs.
  • Various type of ringworm and several other fungal infections are seen on the body.
  • Superficial mycosis are generally saprophytes and having capacity to digest keratin protein.
  • Systemic mycosis is caused fungi which causes serious infection from general symptoms to fatal diseases.

Superficial infection is of two types:

    1. Surface infection
    2. Cutaneous infection

Some of the important fungal diseases are:

    1. Aspergillosis
    2. Candidiasis
    3. Dermatomycosis

Aspergillosis

Aspergillosis

  • Aspergillosis word given to large group of diseases caused by fungus infection from species Aspergillus.
  • Aspergillosis is a disease occurs in humans, birds and other animals.
  • The most important pathogens that are responsible for this disease are: Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus.
  • It is chronic or acute forms.

Symptoms

  • Coughing of blood
  • Chest pain
  • Infection in lungs causes cough, fever and chest pain.
  • Kidney failure and liver failure.

Diagnosis

  • On chest X-ray and CT, pulmonary Aspergillosis classically manifest as a hallow sign and later, as air crescent sign.
  • On microscopy, aspergillus sp. are reliably exhibit by silver stains e.g. Gridley stain or Gomori methenamine silver, gives fungal walls grey black colour.

Treatment

  • For aggressive invasive Aspergillosis include: Voriconazol, liposomal amphotericin B combination with surgical debridement.
  • Iitraconazole
  • Fluconazole

Epidemiology

  • Aspergillosis is thought to affect more than 14 million people worldwide.

Candidiasis

Candidiasis

  • This fungal infection is caused by yeast belonging to genus Candida.
  • There are about twenty Species of candida which can causes infection in human. the most common is Candida albicans.
  • It normally lives on skin and mucous membrane without causing any infection. However, overgrowth of the strain causes infection as mouth or throat and systemic life-threatening diseases.

Symptoms

  • Candida infection of mouth and throat can be seen as white patches/plaques.
  • On the mucosal membrane including-redness, swallow and wound near the mouth.

Diagnosis and test

  • The fungal strain is scrapped from the body and seen under microscope for confirmation of the pathogen to initiate the treatment.
  • Generally, they are cultured on PDA and enriched media for confirmation of foreign agent or pathogen.

Treatment

Treated with antifungal medications

    1. Clotrimazole
    2. Nystatin
    3. Amphotericin B
    4. Caspofungin

Epidemiology

  • Oral candidiasis is the very much common oral infection that occurs in humans.
  • About 20% of those receive chemotherapy for cancer and 20% of with AIDS.

Dermatomycosis

Dermatomycosis

  • It is caused by various group of filamentous fungi affecting superficial skin, hair and nails.
  • They are sometimes called skin lesion.
  • They are generally including three strains.
    1. Trichodermaphyton
    2. Microsporum
    3. Epidermophyton

Reference and Sources

  • 1% – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus
  • 1% – https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/home/decision-support-in-medicine/infectio
    us-diseases/superficial-mycoses-dermatophytosis/
  • 1% – https://www.intechopen.com/books/immunodeficiency/fungal-infections-in-immunosuppressed-patients
  • 1% – https://wikimili.com/en/Aspergillosis
  • 1% – https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/candidiasis/index.html
  • 1% – https://healthjade.net/what-is-candida/
  • 1% – https://quizlet.com/305509099/dermatophytes-cls-review-mycology-medical-laboratory-science-review-mycology-microbiology-fungi-mycology-assignments-flash-cards/

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