Premium
Epidemiology of chronic fungal rhinosinusitis in rural India
Author(s) -
Chakrabarti Arunaloke,
Rudramurthy Shivaprakash M.,
Panda Naresh,
Das Ashim,
Singh Amarjeet
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
mycoses
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.13
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1439-0507
pISSN - 0933-7407
DOI - 10.1111/myc.12314
Subject(s) - chronic rhinosinusitis , epidemiology , medicine , veterinary medicine , aspergillus flavus , asthma , environmental health , biology , botany
Summary A descriptive epidemiological study of fungal rhinosinusitis ( FRS ) was conducted in rural north India in the form of house‐to‐house survey of villages of two districts each of Punjab and Haryana provinces using a clinical case definition of chronic rhinosinusitis ( CRS ). The suspected cases were investigated further in the laboratory to confirm FRS . Air and environment were sampled in different seasons to find Aspergillus spore count. The prevalence of chronic FRS cases was at 0.11% of the population and Aspergillus flavus was the predominant (97.6%) agent of all types of chronic FRS . The chronic FRS patients were classified as allergic FRS 41 (56.1%), chronic granulomatous FRS 13 (17.8%), eosinophilic FRS 11 (15.0%), fungal ball 7 (9.5%) and chronic invasive FRS 1 (1.3%). Aspergillus spores were present in large numbers (~20%) in air with significantly higher counts of A. flavus during winter months in the wheat‐thrashing areas of Punjab as compared to Haryana ( P = 0.0079). The present study identified high prevalence (27.5% of CRS cases) of chronic FRS cases in rural north India and its possible association with wheat harvesting seasons.