Abstract
An ongoing outbreak of Cryptococcus gattii caused infections, which emerged on Vancouver Island and the Pacific Northwest, has affected more than 200 of the islands’ residents, of whom eight died. While C. gattii infections are rarely described in travelers, we report a case of cryptococcosis caused by C. gattii in a patient treated with high dose corticosteroids for systemic lupus erythematosus induced autoimmune hemolytic anemia. She acquired the disease during a visit to Vancouver Island one year before the onset of the symptoms. This indicates that C. gattii may cause a dormant infection that can be activated during treatment with corticosteroids.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr Robin May (University of Birmingham) and Dr Richard van Leeuwen (CBS Fungal Biodiversity Centre) for proofreading the manuscript. Research carried out by Ferry Hagen was supported by the Odo van Vloten Foundation.
Conflict of interest: All authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Access to data
All authors had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
This paper was first published online on Early Online on 1 October 2009.