What are the signs and symptoms of blastomycosis?
Symptoms of blastomycosis may include:
- Cough, or cough with blood.
- Fever.
- Shortness of breath.
- Chills and/or night sweats.
- Fatigue.
- Weight loss and poor appetite.
- Joint or bone pain.
- Back or chest pain.
Can you survive blastomycosis?
Those infected can become extremely ill, commonly with respiratory disease, and many will die without treatment. Blastomycosis fungal infection in dogs is common.
What does blastomycosis do to your body?
Blastomyces enters the body through the lungs and causes a lung infection, usually pneumonia. From the lungs, the fungus can spread to other areas of the body including your skin, bones, joints and central nervous system. This disease is rare and more commonly affects people involved with outdoor activities.
How long will blastomycosis last?
The disease may resolve on its own or persist into the chronic form of the infection. Chronic Blastomycosis, which lasts more than three weeks, may affect the lungs, skin, bones, joints, genitourinary tract, and/or central nervous system. Involvement of the skin is very common in individuals with Blastomycosis.
How fast does blastomycosis grow?
The time from a person’s exposure to the fungus to the time symptoms develop can vary from three weeks to several months.
Can blastomycosis go away on its own?
What do blastomycosis lesions look like?
Papules, pustules, or nodules are most frequently found on exposed body areas. They may look like warts or ulcers. They are usually painless. They may vary from gray to violet in color.
Can you have blastomycosis for years?
The disease may resolve on its own or persist into the chronic form of the infection. Chronic Blastomycosis, which lasts more than three weeks, may affect the lungs, skin, bones, joints, genitourinary tract, and/or central nervous system.
Where does blastomycosis live in the United States?
Blastomycosis is an infection caused by a fungus called Blastomyces. The fungus lives in the environment, particularly in moist soil and in decomposing matter such as wood and leaves. Blastomyces mainly lives in areas of the United States and Canada surrounding the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys and the Great Lakes.
What kind of disease is Blastomycosis caused by?
Blastomycosis is a pulmonary disease caused by inhaling spores of the dimorphic fungus Blastomyces dermatitidis; occasionally, the fungi spread hematogenously, causing extrapulmonary disease.
Can a person get blastomycosis from breathing in spores?
People can get blastomycosis after breathing in the microscopic fungal spores from the air. Although most people who breathe in the spores don’t get sick, some of those who do may have flu-like symptoms, and the infection can sometimes become serious if it is not treated. For other fungal topics, visit the fungal diseases homepage.
Can you detect blastomycosis from a soil sample?
When a soil sample tests positive for Blastomyces, it isn’t necessarily a source of infection, and when a sample tests negative, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the fungus isn’t in the soil. Also, there are no commercially-available tests to detect Blastomyces in the environment.