| Description: | This image depicts an intraoral view, which reveals a lesion of the patient’s maxillary gingival mucosa that had been diagnosed as histoplasmosis, caused by the fungal pathogen, Histoplasma capsulatum. The photograph was captured prior to treatment. See PHIL 19415, for another view of this patient’s intraoral lesion after having received unknown treatment.
The symptoms of histoplasmosis vary greatly, but the disease primarily affects the lungs. Occasionally, other organs are affected, and it is this form of the disease that is called “disseminated histoplasmosis”, which can be fatal if untreated. The disseminated form of this disease usually affects patient’s with a compromised immune system, or very young children, or the elderly. |
