Coccidioides Immitis Research Paper

Coccidioides immitis is a fungi that normally grows in the soil. This fungi is dimorphic so it exist in two different forms. The form that grows in the soil is called the saprophytic form. It can also exist in a parasitic form if it enters a host. C. immiti can cause a disease called valley fever in humans if it is inhaled (Coccidioides, 2010).

Coccidioides immitues is transmitted by airborne transmission. A human can breath in the fungi spores and if it reaches the lungs, it can cause flu like symptoms and an upper respiratory infection. The fungi are normally destroyed in the lungs, but occasionally it grows and produces lots of endospores within the cell. Then if the cell lyses and releases the endospores, the endospores can then be transported by the blood to other parts of the body. The endospores can then get into the central nervous system and in the brain where they will germinate. After they germinate, it can cause a disease where most patients experience an allergic reaction to the fungus that causes reddening off the skin referred to as desert bumps (volk 2002).

There are several different ways that hospitals can diagnose valley fever.

Possible the most common is by taking a blood sample and culturing it then looking for antigens. After the fungi grows, the lab will then observe them under the microscope and do some stains to see if it is Coccidioides immitis. This can take a couple days to a week to get results back. Another way that hospitals test for valley fever is by running CT scans of your lungs and checking to see if you have valley fever pneumonia. The last way used to diagnose patients is an injection that health care stopped using in the 1990s but have started to use again. This type of test is only used if you have had a history of valley fever. If you test positive with this test you will get a bump at the injection site (Fungal,

2017).
Treatment is often not needed for Coccidioides immitis. The immune system can get rid of it quickly in some situations. Other times, when the fungi are flowing threw the blood and the patient is experiencing valley fever, some medication is used. Amphotericin B is the most common medication to treat valley fever (Galgiani, 2000). Unfortunately, there is no prevention of valley fever and it is present in low numbers, but outbreaks can occur. A cause of an outbreak would be stirring up large amounts of dirt that contains C. immitis and creating dust storms (Valley 2017).