... and South America too.
 

There appears to be a connection between the distribution of histoplasma and the prevalence of PD in South America.

"Histoplasmosis is a cosmopolitan mycosis with areas of particularly high endemicity. In North America, the endemic regions are in the Midwestern and Southeastern of United States ... In Latin America, the most prevalent areas are in Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina ... (Fig. 2)." [1]

The figure shows endemic areas around the north and east coasts of South America and along the Amazon. All this detail would be very interesting if only we had detailed maps showing the distribution of PD within these countries. Unfortunately, we have, at best, national statistics. Most countries have zones within and without the endemic area. The exception is Uruguay which is entirely within the endemic area.

If histoplasma is a driver of PD, we would expect a higher prevalence of PD in those areas in which a higher proportion of the population are in the endemic area.

Parkinson's prevalence statistics are difficult to get, but many point to Uruguay as being a hot spot, e.g. a crude prevalence rate of 405 per 100,000 of population [2].

References

[1] "Diagnosis of histoplasmosis"
Allan Jefferson GuimarãesI,II; Joshua D. NosanchukII; Rosely Maria Zancopé-OliveiraI
Braz. J. Microbiol. vol.37 no.1 São Paulo Jan./Mar. 2006
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=...pt=sci_arttext

[2] "The challenge of Parkinson's disease management in Africa"
Age and againg, vol 36.2, pp 122-127
C. L. Dotchin, O. Msuya and R. W. Walker
http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/2/122.full

John

amazed at research from all of you
 

Thank you all for the research. I do not have PD but do have multipal auto immune problems. I always thought is was environmental. Mayo clinic suggested as much. I ate blueberrys off the bush in the 50's in Michigan. Fields were sprayed with DDT at the time and noone thought it could harm. Good book called "Silent Spring" I wish you all the best. ginnie:hug:

It's now three years after the previous post. There was bound to be a paper showing a possible link between histoplasma and PD, it's just one case and causality is unclear, but still interesting nevertheless.

Eid et al. report [1] a "case of Histoplasma capsulatum infection localized to the central nervous system (CNS). ... A 53-year-old woman ... presented with slowly progressive weakness in the lower extremities, new-onset numbness below the midthoracic area, urinary incontinence, and slurred speech. One year prior to presentation, she experienced left-sided transitory weakness involving the face and extremities. ... her brain imaging studies were unrevealing. She later developed tremor in the upper extremities and she was suspected to have central tremor or Parkinson’s disease."

They conclude:
"Histoplasmosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients experiencing slowly progressive neurological deficit."

Reference:

[1] "Compartmentalized Histoplasma capsulatum Infection of the Central Nervous System"
Albert J. Eid, John D. Leever and Kathrin Husmann
Case Reports in Infectious Diseases Volume 2015 (2015), Article ID 581415
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/criid/2015/581415/

John

Two more years have passed.

The aetiology of Parkinson's is still unknown. In a number of posts that I've made in the past, in both this and other threads, I've used epidemiological data to suggest an association between fungal infection and PD.

In this paper [1] Berstad and Berstad present the hypothesis that "a causative agent in [PD] might be either a fungus or bacteria with fungus-like properties".

Reference:

[1] "Parkinson's disease; the hibernating spore hypothesis"
K. Berstad, J Berstad
Medical Hypotheses, July 2017
Parkinson’s disease; the hibernating spore hypothesis - ScienceDirect

John

Suddenly all my dots are connecting
 

I was just diagnosed with chronic histoplasmosis that has caused total blindness, ive apparently had it over ten years and never knew cause no doctor could care enough. Everything you said rang true. Chest pain, bowel and abdominal pain, joint pain, brain problems, all of it. It's crazy how when you finally get the diagnosis everything just starts making sense. Thank you for sharing, now i know im not alone in all this.