Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
few exceptions (e.g. Histoplasma and Coccidioides) are mnemonically
tolerable.
3. Very few fungal diseases are contagious from person to person, though
there are exceptions (e.g. tinea infections).
4. Fungal colonization, that does not result in disease, is quite common.
Pneumocystis, Aspergillus, and Cryptococcus are just a few examples of
potentially life-threatening infections that are found to inhabit the lungs
of a significant percentage of healthy persons. When colonized indivi-
duals become immunosuppressed, endogenized fungi may emerge as seri-
ous pathogens.
5. Though there are over a million fungal species, and hundreds of potential
fungal pathogens, the vast majority of human fungal diseases can be
accounted for by a few dozen genera, falling into four classes: Class
Zygomycota (Chapter 34), Class Basidiomycota (Chapter 35), Class
Ascomycota (Chapter 36), and Class Microsporidia (Chapter 37). By far,
Class Ascomycota contains the majority of the pathogenic fungal organ-
isms, with 20 infectious genera. Readers are highly encouraged to memo-
rize the fungi that fall into the classes with fewer infectious organisms
(Zygomycota, Basidiomycota, and Microsporidia); all the other fungal
pathogens will belong to Class Ascomycota.
6. Most fungal diseases do not occur in immune-competent individuals. Of
the hundreds of fungal infections that can occur in humans, only a dozen
or so produce disease in healthy persons. With few exceptions (e.g.
Cryptococcus Gattii, Class Basidiomycota, Chapter 35), the clinically
serious systemic mycoses that regularly occur in otherwise healthy indi-
viduals belong to Class Ascomycota.
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