Acute lung infection. This is usually self-limiting and confined to the lungs. The patient feels fever, recurring chills, cough, chest pain and labored breathing. Even without treatment, this clears up in two weeks to three months. Chronic lung infection.
Illness hangs on.
Treatment, when indicated, usually helps. Without treatment, a great portion of these patients die within four to ten months after their exposure to the fungus. Fortunately, this is a rare form of the disease. There are both skin tests and blood tests that can reveal the presence of histoplasmosis infection and disease. Healthy young men who once unknowingly had histoplasmosis were kept out of military service during World War II because their x-rays suggested extensive tuberculosis scars.