Symptoms:

Symptoms depend on the type of infection:

• Acute asymptomatic pulmonary (lung) histoplasmosis -- no symptoms
• Acute symptomatic pulmonary histoplasmosis:
  • Fever
  • Chills
  • Cough
  • Chest pain when breathing in
• Chronic pulmonary histoplasmosis:
  • Chest pain
  • Cough
  • Excessive sweating
  • Fever - may resemble symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis and include coughing up blood (hemoptysis)
  • Shortness of breath
• Disseminated histoplasmosis:
  • Fevers
  • Headache
  • Neck stiffness
  • Mouth sores
  • Skin lesions
• Other histoplasma symptoms:
  • Joint pain
  • Rashes
  • Skin nodules (red lumps called erythema nodosum)

Signs and tests:

How histoplasmosis is diagnosed depends on the body parts involved. Tests may look at the sputum, lung tissue, blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), or bone marrow for signs of the fungus. An antigen test may be done on blood, urine, or CSF.

In addition, x-rays may show abnormalities in the lungs or lymph nodes of the chest. These are signs of histoplasmosis.