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Endemic Nosocomial Filamentous Fungal Disease: A Proposed Structure for Conceptualizing and Studying the Environmental Hazard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Frank S. Rhame
Frank S. Rhame*
Affiliation:
Infection Control Program, University of Minnesota Hospitals and Clinics, Infectious Diseases Section, Department of Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and the Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
*
Box 421, Mayo Memorial Building, University of Minnesota Hospitals and Clinics, Minneapolis, MN 55455
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Extract

Reducing the concentration of filamentous fungal spores in the air inhaled by immunosuppressed patients is an important goal. Although it is not clear that air is the exclusive vector of nosocomial filamentous fungal disease, it is quite likely that it is the most important vector. Uncertainties about this assertion are compounded by the great variety of fungal species involved. Aspergillus fumigatus, A. flavus, A. terreus, A. niger, Petriellidium boydii, Fusarium sp., Mucoraceae, Phoma sp., Alternaria, Penicillium, and others have caused invasive disease in immunosuppressed patients. But detailed studies of environmental correlates of nosocomial disease are largely restricted to A. flavus and A. fumigatus. Spores of all of these species may be recovered from unfiltered air. It is probably reasonable to extrapolate from Aspergillus to all of the species involved.

Type
Research Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 7 , supplement S2: Proceedings of the Second ICI/Stuart Workshop , February 1986 , pp. 124 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1986

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References

1.Rhame, FS, Streifel, AJ, Kersey, JH, et al: Extrinsic risk factors for pneumonia in the patient at high risk of infection. Am J Med 1984; 76(5A)42–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed