Overview
Fungi are common organisms that live on soil, air, water, plants, and also in the human body. Some fungi are harmful while some are non-harmful. Harmful fungi can cause infection that are potentially harmful to the human body. There are many types of fungal infection and some of the common ones includes fungal nail infection, ringworm, vaginal candidiasis, candida infection of the mouth, aspergillosis, pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) and more. Most of these fungal infections will produce a variety of symptoms such as skin changes, cracking or peeling of skin, itchiness, respiratory symptoms, discharge from the genital area, whitish spots in the oral cavity and many more. Generally, the investigations done to diagnose a fungal infection is by taking a sample of the infected cells and tested the presence of fungi through a microscope. Some external skin infection are much easier to be diagnosed as they can be tested with a lamp known as Wood's Lamp. Fungal infections are treated with anti-fungal medication such as fluconazole, clotrimazole, itraconazole and so on.
