The Biology of Pneumocystis Carinii

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Pneumocystis carinii was first described in the lungs of guinea pigs during studies of experimental American trypanosomiasis by Chagas in 1909.1 The organism was thought to represent a variant in the sexual life cypcle of Trypanosoma cruzi. Carini found the organism in trypanosome-infected rats, but it was not until 1912 that the organisms were recognized as belonging to a new genus and assigned the name of Pneumocystis carinii when Delanöes identified identical forms in the lungs of rats which had not been infected with trypanosomes.2