Penicilliosis marneffei in Thailand: Report of Five Human Cases *

Nucleotide Sequence-Based Analysis for Determining the Molecular Epidemiology of Penicillium marneffei

“…In contrast to the worldwide and ubiquitous distribution of other species of Penicillium, P. marneffei is endemic to Southeast Asia and is responsible for causing serious disseminated opportunistic infections in persons with defects in their cell-mediated immunity such as cancer, Hodgkin's disease, and especially in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected persons (10,25,43,54). Although less frequent, infections in immunocompetent persons have also been reported (12,27). Infection with P. marneffei has emerged in the past decade as an important public health problem in Southeast Asia, where the infection often serves as an indicator disease for HIV (43,45,52).…”

Parietal Lobe Abscess Resulting from Penicillium Marneffei Infection in an Immunocompetent Nigerian: Case Report and Review of Literature

“…Deng and colleagues 3 identified the first patient with naturally occurring penicilliosis marneffei in Guangxi, China, in 1964. Five cases were reported in Bangkok, Thailand by Jayanetra et al 17 . Two of these patients were immune competent and were successfully treated with amphotericin B.…”

“…It is the third most common opportunistic infection in HIV-infected patients in certain parts of Southeast Asia 15 . Areas in which the organism is highly endemic include Southeast Asia 16,17,18 and the southern part of China 3,19 . Cases from outside the region of endemicity were observed in HIV-infected patients from Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States 20 .…”

CD4+ T cell-mediated fatal hyperinflammatory reactions in mice infected with Penicillium marneffei

“…Penicilliosis marneffei, a deep-seated fungal disease caused by the dimorphic fungus Penicillium marneffei, is endemic in south-east Asia countries and China [1][2][3][4]. Intensive research has been conducted in recent years to characterize the fungus, because it causes a life-threatening mycotic infection in patients with AIDS, particularly in northern Thailand [5][6][7][8][9].…”

“…route. However, this model may not be appropriate for analysing the host defence mechanism against disseminated infection with P. marneffei, which is usually acquired by the pulmonary route from contaminated soil and disseminates to other organs [3,12], and the initial host defence is thought to be at the primary site of infection in the airspace of the lungs. Therefore, we recently established an experimental animal model of penicillium infection, in which P. marneffei directly infected the lungs of mice by an intratracheal instillation and developed the disseminated infection to other organs such as liver and spleen [13], and furthermore demonstrated that T cell-mediated immunity plays a central role in host defence mechanisms [13].…”