Donor-Related Coccidioidomycosis in Organ Transplant Recipients

• Published in: Clinical infectious diseases Vol. 37; no. 9; pp. 1265 - 1269
• Main Authors: Wright, Patty W., Pappagianis, Demosthenes, Wilson, Mark, Louro, Ana, Moser, Stephen A., Komatsu, Kenneth, Pappas, Peter G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL The University of Chicago Press 01.11.2003; University of Chicago Press
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Brief Reports; Coccidioides; Coccidioidomycosis; Coccidioidomycosis - mortality; Coccidioidomycosis - transmission; Disease transmission; Female; Fungal infections; Human mycoses; Humans; Infections; Infectious diseases; Kidneys; Lungs; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mycoses; Organ donation; Organ Transplantation - adverse effects; Tissue Donors; Transplantation; Tropical mycoses; Human; Reactivation; Coccidioides immitis; Prognosis; Mycosis; Primary infection; Mortality; Phycomycetes; Transplantation; Homotransplantation; Fatal course; Fungi; Infection; Case study; Latent; Treatment; Donor; Coccidioidomycosis; Surgery; Graft; Disseminated; Thallophyta
• ISSN: 1058-4838; 1537-6591; 1537-6591
• DOI: 10.1086/378741

Most cases of coccidioidomycosis in organ transplant recipients arise from either primary infection with Coccidioides immitis after environmental exposure or from reactivation of latent infection. Herein, we report 2 cases of rapidly fatal, disseminated coccidioidomycosis that occurred in organ transplant recipients who had never lived in or visited an area where C. immitis is endemic. Both subjects had received a transplanted organ from the same donor, an individual with unrecognized active coccidioidomycosis at the time of his death.