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Volume 21, Number 6—June 2015
Etymologia

Etymologia: Coccidioides

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Coccidioides [kok-sidʺe-oiʹdēs]

A soil fungus found in the western United States and parts of Mexico and Central and South America, Coccidioides was discovered in 1892 by Alejandro Posadas, a medical student, in an Argentinian soldier with widespread disease. Biopsy specimens revealed organisms that resembled the protozoan Coccidia (from the Greek kokkis, “little berry”). In 1896, Gilchrist and Rixford named the organism Coccidioides (“resembling Coccidia”) immitis (Latin for “harsh,” describing the clinical course). Ophüls and Moffitt proved that C. immitis was a fungus rather than a protozoan in 1900. In 2002, C. immitis was divided into a second species, C. posadasii, after Alejandro Posadas.

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References

  1. Fisher  MC, Koenig  GL, White  TJ, Taylor  JW. Molecular and phenotypic description of Coccidioides posadasii sp. nov., previously recognized as the non-California population of Coccidioides immitis. Mycologia. 2002;94:7384. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  2. Galgiani  JN. Coccidioides species. In: Mandell GL, Bennett JE, Dolin R, editors. Mandell, Douglass, and Bennett’s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier. 2010. p. 3333–44.
  3. Hirschmann  JV. The early history of coccidioidomycosis: 1892–1945. Clin Infect Dis. 2007;44:12027. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar

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Cite This Article

DOI: 10.3201/eid2106.et2106

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Page created: May 15, 2015
Page updated: May 15, 2015
Page reviewed: May 15, 2015
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
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