Drama and discovery: the story of histoplasmosis.

The book begins by describing the work of Samuel Darling, his first description of histoplamosis and the causative agent, thought initially to be a parasite. The work of William DeMonbreun in defining the dimorphism and growth characteristics of Histoplasma is discussed in the next chapter. Contributions by Chester Emmons in culturing the organism from soil and by Jan Schwarz in defining the granulomas associated with the disease are also covered. Subsequent chapters cover the development of skin tests and serological tests for diagnosing histoplasmosis. An interesting chapter describes the outbreaks of histoplasmosis that occurred and how eminent scientists and clinicians, including Libero Ajello, Ernest Chick, Chester Emmons and Leo Kaufman, helped to piece together the epidemiology. The final chapter looks at the different drugs used to treat histoplasmosis, from the advent of amphotericin B in the 50’s, through ketoconazole and itraconazole in the 80’s and 90’s, to more recent experience with the lipid formulation of amphotericin.