What is Aspergillosis?
What is Aspergillosis? This is a common question when people become aware they have elevated of mold in their home. Aspergillus is a hydrophilic mold which simply means the mold is able to pull the water it needs to grow out of the air when the humidity is above 60% Relative Humidity. In the case for aspergillus, the house can have a “dry” basement in terms of not seeing liquid water or flooding issues and still have mold growth. In most cases since the water source is the air and all the surfaces are in contact with the air the mold grows over large areas at the same time. In turn most people don’t notice the growth until there is a significant amount.
Aspergillosis is a fungal infection or allergic response due to the Aspergillus fungus, this includes the mold its self and the spores it produces. There are different types of Aspergillosis depending on how and what is affected. Below are some different types of aspergillosis and some of the associated risks.
Aspergillosis Types and Risk
Although most people are often exposed to aspergillus on a daily basis, infections caused by the fungus rarely occur in people who have a normal healthy immune system. The rare infections caused by aspergillus include pneumonia and fungus ball (aspergilloma).
There are several forms of aspergillosis:
- Pulmonary aspergillosis – allergic bronchopulmonary type is an allergic reaction to the fungus that usually develops in people who already have lung problems (such as asthma or cystic fibrosis).
- Aspergilloma: is a growth (fungus ball) that develops in an area of past lung disease or lung scarring (such as tuberculosis or lung abscess).
- Pulmonary aspergillosis: This is an invasive and serious infection associated with pneumonia. This infection can also spread to different parts of the body. Pulmonary Aspergillosis almost always occurs in people that have a lowered or weakened immune system due to other illnesses such as cancer, AIDS, leukemia, an organ transplant, chemotherapy, or other conditions or medications that lower the number of normal white blood cells or weaken the immune system.