Les cryptococcoses : aspects actuels chez 16 malades

The historical question of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in the 1960s in the Congo River basin area in relation to cryptococcal meningitis.

“…Cryptococcosis has now acquired importance and is now the second most common opportunist infection of the central nervous system observed in the evolution of AIDS since the latter appeared in human viropathology. 17,19,22 The study of the first 1,000 cases of AIDS recorded in the United States 23 showed that two-thirds of the cases of Cryptococcus infection appeared as the only clinical manifestation in HIV infection. Cryptococcosis meningitis has been observed in one-fourth of the cases of AIDS as the initial manifestation; in three cases, the meningeal syndrome was the principal clinical risk in two of them.…”

“…In Europe, the frequency of cases of cryptococcosis associated with AIDS is 3-8%. 17,22,25,26 In Africa, the prevalence of cryptococcosis with HIV ranges from 8% to 36% in central Africa 22,26,27 and from 4% to 6% in west Africa. 28,29 However, the technical means (culture and serology) used by laboratories to obtain these data must be taken into account: thus, for subjects examined in Africa, the prevalence is 8-13% [30][31][32][33] while it is 33-36% for central African subjects studied in Europe.…”