Pulmonary Histoplasmosis in Three Austrian Travelers After a Journey to Mexico

Three Austrian travelers (a 37-year-old woman, a 47-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man) presented with fever, dyspnea, thoracodynia, cephalea, arthralgia and fatigue 4 weeks after visiting a bat cave in Mexico. Computed tomography of the lungs showed bilateral nodular infiltrates in all three patients and enlarged mediastinal lymphnodes in two patients. In all patients, specific IgM antibodies against Histoplasma capsulatum could be detected. After treatment with itraconazole 200 mg qd orally for 2 months, the patients had no further complaints and the pulmonary infiltrates had resolved.