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Category: Microbial Genetics and Molecular Biology; Environmental Microbiology
Fungi that Infect Humans, Page 1 of 2
< Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/10.1128/9781555819583/9781555819576_Chap39-1.gif /docserver/preview/fulltext/10.1128/9781555819583/9781555819576_Chap39-2.gifAbstract:
In its short history of a century and a half, of which the last half-century brought the most dramatic advances, scientific medicine has found ways to cure or to treat millions of ill people who 200 years ago would have died early. Paradoxically, these successes of modern medicine have given rise to large groups of people at risk for fungal infections. Life-saving treatments may now breach normal immune functions, or susceptible patients such as premature newborns now survive long enough to become infected by a fungus. Invasive fungal infections have been very rare over most of our species’ history ( 1 ), and the fungi that infect healthy humans are a small, if fascinating, group. Many more invasive fungal infections now occur in patients with an underlying serious illness.
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(A) Clusters of Pneumocystis jirovecii cells in brochoalveolar lavage fluid of an 8-year-old boy, post-lung transplant. Gomori methenamine silver (GMS) stain. Scale bar, 20 μm. (B) Chest film of a 17-year-old boy living with HIV, with pneumonia due to Pneumocystis jirovecii. (C) Biopsy of skin nodule of a 9-year-old boy with aplastic anemia, containing numerous Candida tropicalis yeasts. GMS stain. (D,E) Posterior-anterior chest film (D) and axial computed tomography scan (E) of a 16-year-old previously healthy girl with cavitating cryptococcal pneumonia. (F) Rhizopus sp. hyphae in bowel wall of an adolescent boy, post-liver transplant. GMS stain. Scale bar, 20 μm. (G) Aspergillus fumigatus in maxillary sinusitis and osteomyelitis of a young man, post-intestinal transplant. In the human host, aspergilli produce conidiophores (prominently visible in the image on the right) only in air-filled spaces. GMS stain. Scale bars, 20 μm. (H) A. fumigatus in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of a 3-week-old neonate with adenosine deaminase deficiency. Scale bar, 20 μm. (All micrographs: Dr. Harry P. W. Kozakewich, Department of Pathology, Boston Children’s Hospital; Radiographs: Department of Radiology, Boston Children’s Hospital.)
(A) Clusters of Pneumocystis jirovecii cells in brochoalveolar lavage fluid of an 8-year-old boy, post-lung transplant. Gomori methenamine silver (GMS) stain. Scale bar, 20 μm. (B) Chest film of a 17-year-old boy living with HIV, with pneumonia due to Pneumocystis jirovecii. (C) Biopsy of skin nodule of a 9-year-old boy with aplastic anemia, containing numerous Candida tropicalis yeasts. GMS stain. (D,E) Posterior-anterior chest film (D) and axial computed tomography scan (E) of a 16-year-old previously healthy girl with cavitating cryptococcal pneumonia. (F) Rhizopus sp. hyphae in bowel wall of an adolescent boy, post-liver transplant. GMS stain. Scale bar, 20 μm. (G) Aspergillus fumigatus in maxillary sinusitis and osteomyelitis of a young man, post-intestinal transplant. In the human host, aspergilli produce conidiophores (prominently visible in the image on the right) only in air-filled spaces. GMS stain. Scale bars, 20 μm. (H) A. fumigatus in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of a 3-week-old neonate with adenosine deaminase deficiency. Scale bar, 20 μm. (All micrographs: Dr. Harry P. W. Kozakewich, Department of Pathology, Boston Children’s Hospital; Radiographs: Department of Radiology, Boston Children’s Hospital.)