TY - JOUR AU - Baddley, John W. AU - Winthrop, Kevin L. AU - Patkar, Nivedita M. AU - Delzell, Elizabeth AU - Beukelman, Timothy AU - Xie, Fenglong AU - Chen, Lang AU - Curtis, Jeffrey R. T1 - Geographic Distribution of Endemic Fungal Infections among Older Persons, United States T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2011 VL - 17 IS - 9 SP - 1664 SN - 1080-6059 AB - To investigate the epidemiology and geographic distribution of histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis, and blastomycosis in older persons in the United States, we evaluated a random 5% sample of national Medicare data from 1999 through 2008. We calculated national, regional, and state-based incidence rates and determined 90-day postdiagnosis mortality rates. We identified 776 cases (357 histoplasmosis, 345 coccidioidomycosis, 74 blastomycosis). Patient mean age was 75.7 years; 55% were male. Histoplasmosis and blastomycosis incidence was highest in the Midwest (6.1 and 1.0 cases/100,000 person-years, respectively); coccidioidomycosis incidence rate was highest in the West (15.2). On the basis of available data, for 86 (11.1%) cases, there was no patient exposure to a traditional disease-endemic area. Knowledge of areas where endemic mycosis incidence is increased may affect diagnostic or prevention measures for older adults at risk. KW - endemic mycoses KW - histoplasmosis KW - coccidioidomycosis KW - blastomycosis KW - rheumatoid arthritis KW - fungi KW - geographic distribution KW - United States KW - dispatch DO - 10.3201/eid1709.101987 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/9/10-1987_article ER - End of Reference