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Prevalence of clinical isolates of Cryptococcus gattii serotype C among patients with AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Litvintseva AP, Thakur R, Reller LB, Mitchell TG

Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.

Cryptococcus gattii is a group of exogenous, neurotropic yeasts that possess the capsular serotype B or C. Isolates of serotype C are extremely rare and, until recently, were known to infect only immunocompetent individuals. We genotyped 176 isolates of Cryptococcus from patients in sub-Saharan Africa who had AIDS; 22 (13.7%) of 161 isolates from Botswana and 2 (13.3%) of 15 isolates from Malawi were C. gattii serotype C strains. All of these serotype C strains belong to the rare VGIV genotype, possess the MAT alpha mating-type allele, and exhibit little genetic diversity.

Published 9 August 2005 in J Infect Dis, 192(5): 888-92.
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