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Coccidioides
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<h2 id="clinical-presentation">Clinical presentation</h2> <p>Coccidioidomycosis is amazingly diverse in terms of its scope of clinical presentation, as well as clinical severity. About 60% of <i>Coccidioides</i> infections as determined by serologic conversion are asymptomatic. The most common clinical syndrome in the other 40% of infected patients is an acute respiratory illness characterized by fever, cough, and <a href="/facts/Pleurisy/JEHqK0wu">pleuritic</a> pain. Skin manifestations, such as <a href="/facts/Erythema_nodosum/bwAR5QYs">erythema nodosum</a>, are also common with <i>Coccidioides</i> infection. <i>Coccidioides</i> infection can cause a severe and difficult-to-treat meningitis in AIDS and other immunocompromised patients, and occasionally in immunocompetent hosts. Infection can sometimes cause acute respiratory distress syndrome and fatal <a href="/facts/Classification_of_pneumonia/0GMDauwQ">multilobar pneumonia</a>. The risk of symptomatic infection increases with age. </p> <h2 id="epidemiology">Epidemiology</h2> <p>The primary coccidioidomycosis-<a href="/facts/Endemism/xt4IpIsl">endemic</a> areas are located in Southern California and southern Arizona, and northern Mexico, in Sonora, Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Baja California, where it resides in soil.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> Both <i>C. immitis</i> and <i>C. posadasii</i> were viewed as desert <a href="/facts/Saprotrophic_nutrition/sJkDfrJW">saprophytes</a>, but recent genomic research revealed <i>Coccidioides</i> species to have evolved interacting with their animal hosts.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="etymology">Etymology</h2> <p>The soil fungus <i>Coccidioides</i> was discovered in 1892 by <a href="/facts/Alejandro_Posadas/jxxTfEf1">Alejandro Posadas</a>, a medical student, in an <a href="/facts/Argentinian/aBjJqrlh">Argentinian</a> soldier with widespread disease. Biopsy specimens revealed organisms that resembled the protozoan <a href="/facts/Coccidia/4k00q9EN">Coccidia</a> (from the Greek kokkis, "little berry"). In 1896, Gilchrist and Rixford named the organism <i>Coccidioides</i> ("resembling Coccidia") <i>immitis</i> (Latin for “harsh,” describing the clinical course). Ophüls and Moffitt proved that <i>C. immitis</i> was a fungus rather than a protozoan in 1900. In 2002, <i>C. immitis</i> was divided into a second species, <i><a href="/facts/Coccidioides_posadasii/pBQd0XUC">C. posadasii</a></i>, after Alejandro Posadas.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p> <p><i>This article cites public domain text from the CDC, as shown.</i> </p> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://archive.today/20130414143644/http://www.doctorfungus.org/thefungi/Coccidioides.php"><i>Coccidioides</i> sp.</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gquery/?term=coccidioides">National Center for Biotechnology Information: Coccidioides</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever)". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130709154559/http://www.cdc.gov/fungal/coccidioidomycosis/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20130709154559/http://www.cdc.gov/fungal/coccidioidomycosis/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Fauci, Anthony S. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical, 2008. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Baptista-Rosas, Riquelme M., Hinojosa A. Ecological niche modeling of Coccidioides spp. in Western North American deserts. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2007, Vol. 1111, pp. 35–46. <a href="/wiki/Annals_of_the_New_York_Academy_of_Sciences" target="_blank">/wiki/Annals_of_the_New_York_Academy_of_Sciences</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Sharpton, T. J.; Stajich, J. E.; Rounsley, S. D.; et al. (October 2009). "Comparative Genomic Analyses of the Human Fungal Pathogens Coccidioides and Their Relatives". Genome Research. 19 (10): 1722–31. doi:10.1101/gr.087551.108. PMC 2765278. PMID 19717792. Archived from the original on 2014-11-03. Retrieved 2013-07-18. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141103184804/http://www.jcvi.org/cms/publications/listing/abstract/article/comparative-genomic-analyses-of-the-human-fungal-pathogens-coccidioides-and-their-relatives/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20141103184804/http://www.jcvi.org/cms/publications/listing/abstract/article/comparative-genomic-analyses-of-the-human-fungal-pathogens-coccidioides-and-their-relatives/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Anonymous (June 2015). "Etymologia: Coccidioides". Emerg Infect Dis. 21 (6): 1031. doi:10.3201/eid2106.ET2106. PMC 4451898. <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/6/et-2106_article" target="_blank">https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/6/et-2106_article</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>