Short Communication
Hoang Thi Thu Ha, Hideaki O
Abstract
Histoplasmosis, a fungal infection acquired from soil contaminated with birth/bad or chicken droppings, caused by Histoplasma capsulatum (H. capsulatum), has a worldwide distribution, but is not well studied in Vietnam. While infections are usually asymptomatic, the symptoms of acute or epidemic histoplasmosis are high fever, cough, and asthenia. Immunocompromised patients are at highest risk groups of infection (e.g., persons with cancer, transplant recipients, persons with HIV infection). In this study histoplasmosis has been identified from patients with pulmonary infections using an indirect ELISA (HistoplasmaDxSelect™ kit-USA). Histoplasma capsulatum antibodies were detected in 18% (26/144) of patients. Among these, 57.7% (15/26) were HIV positive and 65.4% (17/26) were chronic pulmonary infections. Histoplasma could not be isolated from patient samples, however, nine cases were detected from clinical samples using nested PCR and sequencing methods. This is the first report of the presence of H.capsulatum in Vietnam. Further studies, therefore, need to be conducted to determine the actual prevalence of histoplasmosis in Vietnam and to map out endemic areas of the disease in Asia.