Coccidioidomycosis From Fomites

Coccidioidomycosis is due toCoccidioides immitis, a fungus found in only a very limited area of the New World. The occurrence of proved primary coccidioidomycosis in an individual who had never been outside the South Atlantic states and who probably contracted this disease from fomites prompted an epidemiologic study. This case and the results of the study are reported herewith. Report of Case A 27-year-old Negro man employed by a waste cotton processing plant was admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital on June 12, 1962, with a chief complaint of "no appetite." He had had headache and pharyngitis at the onset of his illness, occasional night sweats without fever for one to two months, and anorexia, fever, and right-sided pleuritic pain for two weeks. He was first seen in the outpatient department on May 28, 1962, where a chest x-ray showed a right middle lobe infiltrate. The patient was treated with