14 Early Signs of Histoplasmosis

Histoplasmosis is an extremely common fungal infection found in North America. Generally, you get it by breathing in fungal spores that come from the soil. Sometimes, the fungus can be present on wood and you breathe it in when you visit a construction site. However, the good news is that the fungus is not contagious once a gets inside a person and it is usually not serious.

Often, if a person is healthy, the symptoms are mild and resolve on their own. However, there are times where this can be a life-threatening disease. For example, if someone has a compromised immune system or if they are pregnant, didn’t it could turn into something very serious and they need to get help immediately. In addition, smokers and former smokers with COPD can develop a chronic form of the illness that requires extended treatment.

1. Fever or Chills

One of the early warning signs that you will notice with this illness is fever and chills. Just like when you have an actual fever, there will be times when you’ll be burning up and other times when you will be cold and need to wrap yourself in a blanket or sit by the heater. This is one of the earlier warning signs, but it still takes a couple of weeks for it to present itself. In addition, some of these symptoms may not appear at all or be very severe depending upon how much exposure you got to the fungus.

If you had heavy exposure, you can expect that your symptoms will be much more pronounced and possibly even start sooner. You would treat the fever or chills that come with this disease just as you would with any other fever or chills. The best way to combat this is to simply crawl under all the blankets and sleep is much as you can so your body has a chance to fight the infection.