Considering Mycological Rarities

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Emerg Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Breedlove, Byron
• Description:
  Mattia di Nanni di Stefano (1403–1433), Scipio Africanus ca. 1425–1430. Poplar, bog oak and other wood inlay, rosewood, tin, bone, traces of green coloring, 24.19 in x 17.13 in/61.5 cm x 43.3 cm. Public domain image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA.
  
  Neither plant nor animal, fungal organisms―in- cluding lichen, mildew, mushrooms, molds, rusts, smuts, and yeasts―are found in nearly every possible terrestrial habitat, even aboard the Interna- tional Space Station. There are millions of species of fungi, and according to the Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention, a few hundred fungal species cause illness in people, ranging from allergies and asthma, to skin rashes and infections, to deadly infec- tions of the bloodstream or lungs.
  
  In a 2013 EID article, Mary Brandt and Benjamin Park note the growing number of human infections from traditional and new fungal agents. Factors driv- ing this emergence, they explain, include medical treatments that make immunocompromised patients more susceptible. They also state that “Risk factors such as changes in land use, seasonal migration, inter- national travel, extreme weather, and natural disas- ters, and the use of azole antifungal agents in large- scale agriculture are believed to underlie many of the increases in community-acquired fungal infections.”
  
  The recent emergence of Candida auris infections, for instance, underscores those concerns on a broad scale because C. auris is often multidrug-resistant, dif- ficult to identify, and causes outbreaks in healthcare settings. A recent study from Finland that reported life-threatening fungal bloodstream infections associ- ated with consuming probiotic supplements that con- tain Saccharomyces boulardii reveals a route of infection that may represent another mycological issue.
  
  
• Subjects:
  About The Cover Candida Candidiasis Communicable Diseases, Emerging Fungi Mycoses
• Source:
  Emerg Infect Dis. 27(9):2510-2511
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC8386784
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  27
• Issue:
  9
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:82d187d0f66ab615d588c3764cc7ce3ac235ce2c982fcc6829f95a0655ff0e6f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/109728/cdc_109728_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.91 MB ]