Coccidioidomycosis: A Highly Infectious Airborne Mycosis of Public Health Concern

Mahendra Pal^1* & Prasad Kumar Pati²

¹Narayan Consultancy on Veterinary Public Health and Microbiology, Anand, Gujarat, India
²Department of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology, College of Veterinary Science, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India

Dr. Mahendra Pal, Founder of Narayan Consultancy on Veterinary Public Health and Microbiology, Anand, Gujarat, India.

Keywords: Coccidioidomycosis; Airborne Disease; Saprozoonosis

Abstract

An airborne disease is one, which is transmitted by the inhalation of infectious microbe through the respiratory tract from the environment. There are many airborne diseases caused by multiple etiological agents, such as virus (Influenza), bacterium (Tuberculosis), fungus (Histoplasmosis), actinomycetes (Nocardiosis), Chlamydia (Chlamydiosis), and Rickettsia (Coxiellosis) [1]. A large number of respiratory mycoses like adiaspiromycosis, aspergillois, blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, cryptococcosis, geotrichosis, histoplasmosis, paracoccioidomycosis, pneumocystosis, pseudoallescheriasis, rhodotorulosis, sporotrichosis, and zygomycosis are reported from many developing as well as developed countries of the world [2,3]. These pulmonary mycotic diseases pose a great challenge to medical and veterinary professionals. Among these, coccidioidomycosis (Desert fever, Desert rheumatism, Posada-Wernicke disease, San Joaquin fever, Valley fever) is an emerging and re-emerging life threatening fungal disease, particularly among the immunocompromised patients. Coccidioidomycosis is an important saprozoonotic mycotic disease, which presents a major public health problem in endemic regions of the world. The imported cases of disease are observed in persons who travelled to endemic zones.

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