Laboratory exposure to Coccidioides: lessons learnt in a non-endemic country

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Abstract

Coccidioides 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.

Description

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Citation

Porte L, Valdivieso F, Wilmes D, et al. Laboratory exposure to Coccidioides: lessons learnt in a non-endemic country. J Hosp Infect. 2019;102(4):461-464. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2019.03.006

Keywords

Coccidioides posadasii, Diagnosis, Laboratory exposure, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, Coccidioidomycosis

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