Environmental C and R

Description

A Absidia A zygomycate reported to be allergenic has been shown on occasion to cause infections at multiple sites. According to the study of Microbiology and Immunology On-line, the Absidia species is one of the three most common genera that can cause Zygomycosis which also known as mucormycosis and phycomycosis. Zygomycosis is an acute inflammation of soft tissue, usually with fungal invasion of the blood vessels. This rapidly fatal disease is caused by several different species in this class. The zygomycetes, like the Candida species, are ubiquitous and rarely cause disease in an immunocompetent host. Some characteristic underlying conditions which cause susceptibility are: diabetes, severe burns, immunosuppression or intravenous drug use. Another common health effect of absidia species, is Rhinocerebral infections. This disease is frequently seen in the uncontrolled diabetic. These fungi have a tendency to invade blood vessels (particularly arteries) and enter the brain via the blood vessels and by direct extension through the cribiform plate. Rhinocerebral infections are usually fulminant and frequently fatal. This is why they cause death so quickly. Absidia species may also cause mucorosis in immune compromised individuals. Mucurosis is an infection with tissue invasion by broad, nonseptate, irregularly shaped hyphae of diverse fungal species such as Absedia species. The sites of infection are the lung, nasal sinus, brain, skin and eye (Mycotic Keratitis-infection of cornea which can lead to blindness). Infection may have multiple sites. One species of Absidia which is the Absidia cormbifera has been an invasive infection agent in AIDS and neutropenic patients, as well as, agents of bovine mycotic abortions, and feline subcutaneous abscesses. Acremonium Reported to be allergenic. Can produce a trichothecene toxin which is toxic if ingested. It was the primary fungus identifired in at least two houses where the occupant complaints were nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. A sexual state of Emericellopsis, Chaetomium, Nectripsis. It can produce mycetomas, infections of the nails, onychomycocorneal ulcers, eumycotic mycetoma, endophthalmitis, meningitis, and endocarditis. Species of Acremonium are recognized by solitary to weakly branched, tapering phialides arising from vegetative filaments and bearing a wet cluster of mostly 1-celled spores (conidia). The filaments are sometimes bound together into "ropes" several cells in diameter. Some appear to be parasitic on living fungi. Sequence characteristics of this imperfect fungus are of great interest as prerequisite for the improvement of antibiotic biosynthesis. Acremonium, under certain conditions, can also produce very potent mycotoxins called trichothecenes. The trichothecenes are potent inhibitors of DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis, and have been well studied in animal models because of concern about their potential misuse as agents of biological warfare, due to their ability to destroy the immune system, internal organs, bone marrow, and affect the mind. They are a known carcinogen. The most common characteristic of this fungus is a horrible stench in the air.

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