In 1993, my brother was hospitalized for what we were told was full blown cancer of the lungs and he wasn’t going to make it through the weekend. His symptoms had started about a month prior to the hospital stay. He had been having all sorts of symptoms like: shortness of breath, troubling swallowing, cold chills, night sweats, a dry cough, fever, constant headache, chest pain, and a significant weight loss. His doctors were doing test after test trying to find out what was making him so sick. His symptoms were similar to that of tuberculosis, so they tested him for that, even my dad and I had to be tested for it. That test came back negative just like the rest of them. He had started developing pneumonia so they did a pneumocentesis, to test the fluid from his lungs to see if that told them anything different. Later the next day, we were informed that he had a respiratory disease called Histoplasmosis (his-to-plaz-mo-sis).
According to Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Histoplasmosis is a systemic, fungal respiratory disease caused by Histoplasma capsulatum. It is a fungal infection that varies in symptoms and seriousness. Histoplasmosis usually affects the lungs and causes a short-term, treatable lung infection. It can also affect other parts of the body as well. When it does, it is called disseminated histoplasmosis. Disseminated histoplasmosis can be fatal.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide get this lung disease. It’s transmitted through airborne spores that you breathe into your lungs when you work in or around soil that contains the fungus, histoplasma capsulatum. Most of those that are infected with histoplasmosis never develop signs or symptoms, and aren’t aware they even have the infection. For some people, primarily infants and those with compromised immune systems, histoplasmosis can be serious.
The histoplasmosis fungus is found throughout the world. It grows naturally in soil in some areas of the United…
