Isolation of Histoplasma capsulatum from Two Natural Sources in the Mohawk Valley; One the Probable Point Source of Two Cases of Histoplasmosis

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Abstract
The study of specimens from 2 natural sources in the Mohawk Valley, New York, where 2 brothers with histoplasmosis lived and worked and apparently acquired the infection, is presented in detail. Mycologic and serologic findings on specimens from these patients, one having an acute pulmonary form of the disease, the other a mild or subclinical infection, are also briefly discussed together with pertinent clinical data. H. capsulatum was isolated on 3 separate examinations of portions of material obtained from remains of a decayed tree, believed to have been the point source of the infection. The fungus was also isolated from litter from a chicken coop on the farm of one of the brothers. Dust from the decayed tree which the patients had felled about 2 weeks prior to their illness appears to be the likely source of the infection. These studies reveal a new area of endemicity of histoplasmosis in New York.