Pathogens are organisms that have the ability to cause disease in man. These organisms are often microscopic and can only be seen under the microscope.
Virulence is a metric used to measure the disease causing ability of a microbe. The the degree of pathogenicity is known as Virulence.
Mycology is the study of fungi of medical importance.
There are lots of organism that are classified as fungi, however mycoses is a study restricted to the disease causing fungi.
Fungi in general are non motile. They can not move from one place to another, without the aud of an external agent like wind, water or man.
There are two types of fungi
First, Unicellular fungi e.g Yeast
Then Multicellular Fungi e.g Mould
The commonest form of fungi in the immediate environment is mushrooms. Some of this is edible and is used by many to prepare different kinds of food, like soup.
Although this organism is edible, not all are. Poisonous mushrooms do exist. Care should be taken to avoid their consumption.
Mycoses can be divided into 2 based of the site of primary infection
1.Onycomycosis: (fungal infection of the nail )
2.Dermatomycosis: (infection of the skin)
Most of them (fungi), are Saprophytes. Saprophytes are organisms that live on decaying organic matter. Its activities such as feeding, excretion etc bring about the composition of this matter. Humans get infected when an individual gets wounded, by. a prick of stick or by any other sharp object in the soul. The direct contact between the broken skin and the soul containing this saprophytes, will initiate the infection.
Some of them are parasitic nature. As a parasite, they invade the body of their host organism, evade its immune system and get established in a niche where it lives at the detriment of the host. Some of the disease causing fungi falls under this category.
Fungal infection is serious but often overlooked medical condition that can kill. Poor enlightenment has left many in the dark. Self medication has also played a crucial role in this.
Tinea versicolor, a disease caused by malassezia fufur is the commonest form of fungal infection. Its clinical presentation is a lesion, characterised by brown patches in a mosaic form in the skin.
Those who have the disease don't experience any severe clinical symptom because it is a none inflammatory lesion.
The ones who visit the hospital do that for aesthetic reasons.
The types of mycoses includes;
Superficial Mycoses: this results when a fungus or group of fungi infect the outermost part of the skin (hair and nails).
The stratum corneum is the primary site of infection. Examples includes Tinea versicolor, Tinea nigra, black and white piedra.
Cutaneous mycoses:
fungal infection with lesions at the cutaneous area of the epidermis of the skin. Examples include: Microsporum spp. , Epidermiphyton spp. Trichophyton spp.
SubCutaneous Mycoses: this infection occurs at the deeper layer of the skin, the Dermis. Examples: Chromoblastomycoses, mycetoma, sporotrichosis.
Systemic Mycoses: when fungal elements break the skin barrier to infect the blood and the internal organs. Examples: Histoplasmosis, Blastomycosis.
opportunistic mycoses is suffered by immunocompromised patients, organisms like Candida Albicans, aspergillus and molds, cause serious and life-threatening systemic infection.
