Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia is a fungal infection of the lungs. The disease used to be called Pneumocystis carinii.

Pneumocystosis; PCP; Pneumocystis carinii

This type of pneumonia is caused by the fungus Pneumocystis jiroveci. This fungus is common in the environment and does not cause illness in healthy people.

However, it can cause a lung infection in people with a weakened immune system due to:

• Cancer
• Chronic use of corticosteroids or other medications that weaken the immune system
• HIV/AIDS
• Organ or bone marrow transplant

Pneumocystis jiroveci was a relatively rare infection before the AIDS epidemic. Before the use of preventive antibiotics for the condition, most people in the United States with advanced AIDS would develop it.

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Pneumocystosis

AIDS

Lungs

Review Date: 12/01/2009
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine; Jatin M. Vyas, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)