Fungal pneumonia

Fungal pneumonia is an infection of the lungs by fungi. It can be caused by endemic fungi, by opportunistic fungi, or by a combination of both. The outlook differs sharply with the patient: case mortality can be as high as 90 percent in people with weakened immune systems, while people with healthy immunity generally respond well to antifungal therapy. The illness often looks like influenza or another common infection, with fever, cough, headache, rash, muscle aches and joint pain, so treatment can be delayed or never sought, and most cases go untreated, unreported or unnoticed. Fungi usually reach the lung when spores are inhaled, though they can arrive through the bloodstream or from reactivation of a latent infection. Diseases that can involve the lungs this way include coccidioidomycosis, Pneumocystis pneumonia, aspergillosis, histoplasmosis and blastomycosis.