Fungal Infections: What They Are, Causes, Symptoms, Treatment & Types

These are surface-level invaders that confine themselves to your nails, skin, and protective mucous membranes (including the mouth, throat, or vagina).

• Dermatophytosis: Despite the name, this is caused entirely by a group of fungi called dermatophytes that feed on the dead cells of your skin, hair, and nails. Examples include athlete's foot (tinea pedis) on the feet, jock itch (tinea cruris) around the groin and scalp ringworm (tinea capitis).
• Onychomycosis: This occurs when fungal strains take hold in your fingernails, leaving the nails brittle, discoloured, and cracked.
• Yeast Infections (Candidiasis): Driven by Candida yeasts (most frequently Candida albicans), these mucocutaneous infections manifest as oral thrush in the mouth, specific types of diaper rash, vaginal yeast infections (vulvovaginitis), oesophagal candidiasis, or raw irritation in moist skin folds (candidal intertrigo).
• Skin Discolouration (Tinea Versicolor/Pityriasis Versicolor): When the common skin yeast Malassezia grows out of control, it disrupts normal pigmentation, resulting in noticeable patches of skin discolouration.

These infections develop just beneath the skin's surface. They generally happen when a fungus hitches a ride through an open cut or wound, typically following a minor outdoor injury like a scratch from a plant thorn or splinter. Mostly found in tropical and subtropical regions, they tend to cause localised skin ulcers, rashes, and nodules.

• Sporotrichosis (Rose gardener's disease): Triggered by the Sporothrix fungus, this usually stays confined to the skin after handling infected plants, though it can occasionally move into the lungs or other parts of your body.
• Chromoblastomycosis: A variety of different fungi can cause this condition, which results in long-lasting, chronic skin lesions that, in very rare cases, spread further inward.
• Eumycetoma: This is another localised infection caused by diverse fungal species that most commonly targets the feet after an open wound exposure.

Deep or invasive fungal infections bypass outer defences entirely to take up residence in internal systems, such as your lungs, bloodstream, urinary tract, or brain. A large portion of these are opportunistic infections, meaning they primarily strike when a person's immune system is already compromised.

• Histoplasmosis: You get this by inhaling spores of the Histoplasma fungus, which commonly thrives in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. While it starts in the lungs, it can spread to your brain or other internal systems.
• Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever): Caused by the Coccidioides fungus, this respiratory infection is highly prevalent in the arid climates of California and Arizona. It usually stays in the lungs but can rarely migrate elsewhere.
• Blastomycosis: The Blastomyces fungus is known for infecting your lungs, skin, and bones simultaneously, though it can also target the brain and spinal cord in rare instances.
• Aspergillosis: This is caused by Aspergillus, a common environmental mould. It can trigger severe allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), cause chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, or physically bunch up into a dense fungus ball (aspergilloma).
• Candidal Urinary Tract Infection: Although bacteria are the usual culprits behind UTIs, yeasts like Candida can also take root and cause urinary tract infections.
• Invasive Candidiasis: This dangerous condition occurs when Candida species enter your bloodstream (candidemia) and travel to major internal targets like your heart, brain, bones, or eyes (endophthalmitis).
• Pneumocystis Pneumonia (PJP): An opportunistic lung infection caused by the fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii that specifically threatens individuals with severely weakened immune systems.
• Mucormycosis: A highly aggressive group of environmental moulds called mucormycetes drives this infection. It can attack your sinuses and brain, lungs, intestines, skin, or spread through multiple systems all at once.
• Cryptococcosis: Caused by Cryptococcus neoformans or Cryptococcus gattii, this usually begins as a lung infection but has a dangerous tendency to migrate to the central nervous system, causing cryptococcal meningitis.

• Raised, red, or dark circular borders that scale heavily on the edges while clearing up in the centre.
• Persistent, aggravating burning sensations that worsen significantly when the body gets warm or sweaty.
• White, soggy, cracking, or peeling skin patches between the toes, inside the groin, or under the breasts.
• Fingernails or toenails turn hard, rough, brittle, yellow-brown, and crumble at the edges.
• Scaling patches on the head accompanied by broken hair stumps, leaving local bald spots.

• Lungs: Cough, fatigue, fever, shortness of breath, headache, joint pain, sweating.
• Brain: Headache, fever, nausea/vomiting, neck pain, confusion, sensitivity to light.
• Eye: Pain, redness, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, discharge, tearing.
• Intestinal Tract: Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain.
• Sinuses: Nasal congestion, face pain, headache, fever, swelling on one side of the face.

Doctors take a small piece of skin, a nail bit, or a sample of fluid to test in a lab. This helps them figure out exactly what kind of fungus is causing the problem.

This is a quick test that helps doctors look at a patient's lungs. It makes it easy to see if there is a lot of fluid buildup or dark spots caused by an infection.

This test photographs the body in great depth from a number of different angles. It lets doctors see inside the body more clearly and closely, which helps them find deep diseases early.

This method uses magnets and radio waves to make very clear pictures of soft tissues. It is mostly used to see if an illness has spread to the brain or other sensitive parts of the body.