The Epidemiology of Histoplasmosis

Excerpt

Clinical and epidemiologic concepts of few infectious diseases have changed as radically during the past 20 years as those for histoplasmosis. One of the two papers (1, 2) published in this issue nevertheless indicates that the different clinical manifestations by which this mycosis may present, either as primary infection or chronic disease, may not yet be fully recognized. Because the signs and symptoms produced by Histoplasma capsulatum are so varied and so indistinguishable from those produced by a number of theoretically more common microorganisms, both viral and bacterial, certain epidemiologic and ecologic aspects of histoplasmosis merit review and possible reappraisal.