What is lung fungus? How dangerous is this disease?

1. What is lung fungus?

Pulmonary fungi are divided into two main types: classical fungi (Histoplasmosis and Cryptococcus) and opportunistic fungi (Aspergillus and Candida). Among them, Candida, Aspergillus and Cryptococcus are the three most common types of pulmonary fungi recorded in cases of the disease. These fungi will attack the body and gradually develop from damaged areas and cause necrosis. 

Lung fungus can cause many dangerous complications for patients

2. What causes lung fungus?

Lung fungus Often appears in people with weak constitution and low resistance, specifically:

• Elderly people, people with long-term chronic diseases and people with weak immune systems.
• The patient is suffering from blood problems, nutritional disorders and metabolic disorders.
• People with weakened immune systems due to the use of anti-rejection drugs after organ transplants or HIV/AIDS patients.
• People who regularly use immunosuppressants or corticosteroids.
• People who have had tuberculosis,…

In general, this is not a contagious disease. Fungal infections are usually caused by inhaling fungal spores in the air. 

The disease appears due to many different causes.

3. Symptoms of the disease

People who are infected lung fungus There are usually no specific signs or symptoms. Instead, the signs of this disease are quite similar to other types of lung infections such as tuberculosis or pneumonia. Depending on the cause of the disease, the symptoms of the disease in each subject are also different, including:

• Chest pain, dry cough.
• Fever may persist.
• People may cough up blood when infected with aspergillosis fungus.
• Body weight loss, often feel tired.
• There is a feeling of difficulty breathing, blocked airways and possibly swollen lymph nodes,…

If not treated promptly, these fungal spores will quickly spread to other organs. Prolonged illness can cause patients to experience more serious complications such as uncontrollable coughing up of blood, increasingly deteriorating health, and can even be life-threatening. 

4. How does lung fungus affect health?

As mentioned above, if lung fungus If not detected promptly, the patient will be in danger because the mortality rate of the disease in patients with immunodeficiency or underlying diseases is high. Accordingly, the patient may encounter many other serious health problems such as:

Lung fungus can cause patients to have many dangerous health problems, even death.

• When a patient has lung fungus, it will aggravate existing medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, immunodeficiency, COPD, etc. 
• Because the symptoms of the disease are nonspecific and can be misdiagnosed, treatment is relatively difficult. 
• Lung fungus tends to invade the body of people with weakened immune systems and poor resistance because these people are often unable to fight off diseases. In addition, the treatment process for this type of disease also takes quite a long time. If the patient does not persist with the treatment regimen, lung fungus will recur, become resistant to drugs and cause many serious complications. 

5. Diagnosis and treatment methods

5.1. Ways to diagnose the disease

Accurate diagnosis of pulmonary fungus is relatively difficult. The reason is that the manifestations of lung fungus It is easy to confuse with many other types of lung infections. Even when the patient has had an X-ray, the doctor still cannot completely confirm whether the patient has lung fungus or not. Accordingly, to diagnose the disease, the doctor will first ask the patient about the symptoms he is experiencing and combine the following testing methods:

The disease is diagnosed by a combination of methods.

• Immunological testing: Quantitative test for Precipitin in the blood – often used in cases where patients are infected with Cryptococcus fungus.
• Tests to look for the presence of fungus in the body.
• Testing is performed to look for specific antibodies.

5.2. Treatment measures for diseases

Treatment goals lung fungus First of all, it is necessary to prevent the invasion of fungal spores. This is to prevent the spread of the disease to other organs and to limit the progression of the disease to chronicity. 

People with long-term or severe illness need to be treated for several weeks. Cases that develop rapidly or spread need to be treated aggressively and promptly. If the patient develops serious complications such as meningitis, special attention must be paid to the condition of hydrocephalus. Some of the measures commonly used by doctors in treatment regimens are mentioned as follows: 

Treatment is prescribed according to each case.

• Treatment with antifungal drugs includes amphotericin B, fluconazole or alternatively itraconazole. These antifungal drugs will help inhibit the growth of fungal spores but the treatment time is relatively long (sometimes several years). 
• Surgery: Usually indicated for cases with complications to remove lesions that appear in the bones or chronic lung lesions that also need to be removed and then combined with additional supportive treatment with medication (for conditions where the fungus grows locally in the lungs), or measures to drain abscesses, etc.

In general, the disease lung fungus It is very difficult to diagnose accurately and is easily confused with many other inflammatory diseases that occur in the lungs. Therefore, as soon as you have any suspicious symptoms, go to the facilities. medical reputable to be diagnosed and treated promptly by a doctor. A reputable medical address you can trust to choose is the Respiratory Department of MEDLATEC Healthcare SystemTo make an appointment, please contact us by phone. 1900 56 56 56 for 24/7 support.