Browsing by Author "Gaete, P"
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Item Laboratory exposure to Coccidioides: lessons learnt in a non-endemic country(Elsevier Ltd, 2019-08) Porte, Lorena; Valdivieso, Francisca; Wilmes, Dunja; Thompson, Luis; Munita, José; Varela, Carmen; Rickerts, Volker; Weitzel, Thomas; Gaete, P; Díaz, MC; Alliende, RCoccidioides is a primary pathogenic fungus, which infects humans through highly infectious arthroconidia, causing substantial morbidity including life-threatening disseminated infections. Due to the low infectious dose, laboratory personnel might become infected during diagnostic procedures. Accordingly, coccidioidomycosis is reported as the most frequent laboratory-acquired systemic mycosis worldwide. This risk is aggravated in non-endemic countries, where the diagnosis may not be suspected. We report on an inadvertent exposure of 44 persons to Coccidioides posadasii in a clinical microbiology laboratory in Chile, the measures of containment after rapid diagnosis with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and the lessons learnt in a non-endemic setting.