Title : Histoplasmosis in South East Asia
Abstract:
This presentation will describe the epidemiological review of histoplasmosis in the South East Asia conducted in 2018 and published in 2019 in Emerging Microbes and Infections. The work, conducted by myself with Professor Denning of the University of Manchester and Professor Wahyuningsih of the University of Indonesia, documented all reported cases of histoplasmosis in the South East Asia from its discovery to date. It breaks down the cases by presentation type and comorbidities, specifically HIV/AIDS. The number of cases per country is described and displayed cartographically. In addition all reported data on histoplasmin sensitivity, a sign of exposure to histoplasmosis in a similar manner to the tuberculin test, is recorded and displayed cartographically. Our results demonstrated multiple cases of histoplasmosis throughout the region particularly in Thailand (233), Malaysia (76), Indonesia (48) and Singapore (21). High percentages (43%) of cases were AIDS associated. Histoplasmin sensitivity data revealed areas of very high sensitivity in Myanmar, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam - 86.4%, 26.0%, 63.6%, 36.0% and 33.7%, respectively.
This data is of high relevance to any clinician working within South East Asia and, in the modern age of international travel, important to clinicians in ID around the world. Given the relationship with AIDS this data is particularly relevant to all those working with patients with HIV. The diagnostic confusion with tuberculosis, to be discussed in another upcoming paper of mine and Professor Denning’s, makes an epidemiological awareness of histoplasmosis crucial to those working with TB so that the correct differentials can always be considered
