Penicilliosis marneffei--West meets East

Penicillium marneffei causes one of the most important opportunist infections in South-east Asia. Clinicians in other parts of the world are often not well acquainted with the disease, sometimes resulting in delayed diagnosis and treatment. Interestingly, the first documented human case was a laboratory-acquired infection in France in 1959. In 1973 a natural infection was reported in an American suffering from Hodgkin's disease who had a history of travel to South-east Asia. Since then, cases have been reported in several countries in this area. With the advent of the AIDS pandemic there was a dramatic increase in the number of penicilliosis marneffei patients, and the epidemiology, pathology and clinical management of the disease have been clarified.