Emergomyces africanus: The Mimicking Fungus

Ameshin Moodley; Anisa Mosam; Nelesh P Govender; Yesholata Mahabeer; Antoinette Vanessa Chateau

doi:10.1159/000497608

Emergomyces africanus: The Mimicking Fungus

Dermatopathology (Basel). 2019 Jun 26;6(2):157-162. doi: 10.1159/000497608. eCollection 2019 Apr-Jun.

Authors

Ameshin Moodley¹, Anisa Mosam¹, Nelesh P Govender², Yesholata Mahabeer³, Antoinette Vanessa Chateau¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
² National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service and School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
³ Department of Medical Microbiology, National Health Laboratory Service and Department of Microbiology, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

Abstract

A 31-year-old HIV-seropositive woman from Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, presented with a 3-month history of widespread umbilicated and ulcerated skin papules, plaques, and nodules. The skin lesions were biopsied and sent for histology and fungal culture; the cultured isolate was referred for molecular identification. Histology, fungal culture, and molecular testing confirmed that the dimorphic fungal pathogen Emergomyces africanus had caused a disseminated mycosis.

Keywords: AIDS-related opportunistic infections; Emergomyces africanus; Human immunodeficiency virus; Mycoses.

Publication types

Case Reports