Penicilliosis

Penicilliosis
Classification and external resources
Specialty	infectious disease
ICD-10	B48.4
ICD-9-CM	117.3
DiseasesDB	9802
[]

Penicilliosis (or penicillosis) is an infection caused by Penicillium marneffei.

It is a dimorphic fungus.

Once considered rare, its occurrence has increased due to AIDS. It is now the third most common opportunistic infection (after extrapulmonary tuberculosis and ) in HIV-positive individuals within the endemic area of Southeast Asia.

Diagnosis is usually made by identification of the fungi from clinical specimens. Biopsies of skin lesions, lymph nodes, and bone marrow demonstrate the presence of organisms on histopathology.

The most common symptoms are fever, skin lesions, anemia, generalized lymphadenopathy, and hepatomegaly.

Penicillium marneffei demonstrates in vitro susceptibility to multiple antifungal agents including , itraconazole,miconazole, flucytosine, and amphotericin B. Without treatment patients have a poor prognosis; death occur by liver failure as the fungus releases toxins in the bloodstream. The elevation of liver enzyme in the blood helps to establish a diagnosis.

...
Wikipedia