Fungal respiratory illnesses caused by endemic mycoses can be nonspecific and are often mistaken for viral or bacterial infections. We performed fungal testing on serum specimens from patients hospitalized with acute respiratory illness (ARI) to assess the possible role of endemic fungi as etiologic agents. Patients hospitalized with ARI at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Houston, Texas, during November 2016-August 2017 were enrolled. Epidemiologic and clinical data, nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples for viral testing (PCR), and serum specimens were collected at admission. We retrospectively tested remnant sera from a subset of patients with negative initial viral testing using immunoassays for the detection of and antibodies (Ab) and , and antigens (Ag). Of 224 patient serum specimens tested, 49 (22%) had positive results for fungal pathogens, including 30 (13%) by immunodiagnostic assays, 19 (8%) by immunodiagnostic assays, 2 (1%) by Ag, and none by Ag testing. A high proportion of veterans hospitalized with ARI had positive serological results for fungal pathogens, primarily endemic mycoses, which cause fungal pneumonia. The high proportion of positivity is unexpected as this fungus is not thought to be common in southeastern Texas or metropolitan Houston, though is known to be endemic in southwestern Texas. Although serological testing suffers from low specificity, these results suggest that these fungi may be more common causes of ARI in southeast Texas than commonly appreciated and more increased clinical evaluation may be warranted.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10145596 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof9040456 | DOI Listing |
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