What Are Cryptococcosis and Moniliasis?
diseases cryptococcosis and moniliasis are two examples of systemic mycoses. Both are infectious diseases; moniliasis is also known as a disease of the skin. Both cryptococcosis and moniliasis are caused by fungi. Also known by the name torulosis, cryptococcosis is caused by the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. This fungus is a yeastlike, capsule-producing organism that reproduces by budding. No spores or hyphae are formed. It grows well on ordinary culture media. On the other hand, moniliasis (also called candidiasis) is caused by the fungus Candida albicans, also a yeastlike cell with pseudohyphae (not true septate hyphae). It produces large, thick-walled, spherical chlamydrospores. Pasty, smooth colonies, having a yeasty odor, develop on ordinary culture media. Adults between the ages forty and sixty, males twice as frequently as females, are those most frequently affected by cryptococcosis. The most serious cases of this infectious disease affect the central nervous system and its c
