Fungus Infections of the Central Nervous System

Abstract

Fungus infections in man until recently were not considered serious involvements, but this premise is no longer valid. Accurate vital statistics are not available on the fatalities from fungus infections, since this cause of death is rarely recorded. In 1951 the U. S. Vital Statistics recorded 338 persons who succumbed to systemic fungus diseases. Of those who do not die, many become disabled with the residua and the sequelae. Nickerson¹has postulated that "fungus infections are probably the most widely distributed and most numerous types of infections." In certain areas in the United States, specific exogenous fungus diseases may be considered endemic. These include coccidioidomycosis, in the Southwest, ranging from western Texas to southern California, and histoplasmosis, in the lower two-thirds of the Mississippi River Valley and in southeastern states. Other fungus infections are uniformly distributed. Some of endogenous origin are actinomycosis, cryptococcosis, and moniliasis; others of exogenous origin