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Posadas-Wernicke disease (Roberto Johann Wernicke)

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A systemic mycosis caused by of dust particles containing arthroconidia of Coccidioides immitis, a dimorphic fungus that thrives in the lower Sonoran Desert ecozone of the Western hemisphere, including Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas, parts of central America, Argentina, northwest Mexico, and the San Joaquin valley in California. It may be benign, severe, or fatal. Primary coccidioidomycosis is an acute, self-limiting disease involving only the respiratory organs, while progressive coccidioidomycosis is a chronic, diffuse, granulomatous disease that may involve almost any part of the body. No documented cases of animal-to-human or human-to-human transmission have occurred.

First described by Posdas and Wernicke in 1892. The American surgeon Emmet Rixford observed one case in 1893.

Bibliography

  • A. Posadas:
    Un nuovo caso de micosis fungoides con psorospermias.
    Anales dell Circulo médico Argentino, Buenos Aires, 1892, 15: 585-597.
  • R. J. Wernicke:
    Pentastomas. Revista de la Sociedad Medica Argentina, 1892, 1: 186-189.
    German translation in Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie und Parasitenkunde, 1892, 12: 859-861.

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