Cryptococcal meningitis among other CNS infections

August 21 2017

In a 37 centre, 20 country study, Hakan Erdem, Ankara and colleagues examined the causes of central nervous system (CNS) infection and their outcomes. Among 2,583 patients seen in 24 months, 27 (1%) had cryptococccal meningitis, with only 50% of the cases having HIV infection. Nine of 14 (64%) had another immunosuppressed state, so overall 5 (19%) had no underlying condition.
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Liposomal amphotericin B versus placebo to prevent invasive mycoses in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

August 14 2017

In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, Cornely et al. showed that liposomal amphotericin B (L-AMB) was not effective as prophylaxis against invasive fungal disease (IFD) in patients with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
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Coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever) missed as a cause of death in the USA

August 09 2017

About 150,000 annual cases of coccidioidomycosis occur each year in the USA (especially in Arizona), and at least as many in Central and South America, of which about ~40% are symptomatic and clinically apparent.
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Call for global action on life-threatening fungal infections

August 01 2017

A ‘first of its kind’ series comprising of eight new authoritative papers has been published today in the prestigious journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The series gives new insights into the breadth of fungal diseases and a call to action for world health bodies to prevent millions of infections each year.
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Two new species of thermally dimorphic yeast-like fungi has been described.

July 31 2017

Two new species, Emergomyces africanus from the newly created genus Emergomyces and Blastomyces percursus from the existing genus Blastomyces have recently been described.
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