Follow‐up of epidemiological data of cryptococcosis in Austria, Germany and Switzerland with special focus on the characterization of clinical isolates

Abstract

The present survey in Austria, Germany and Switzerland continued the survey of cryptococcosis set up by the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) in 1997. From 2000 to 2003 77 cases have been reported. An HIV infection is still the most important risk factor (68%). Young HIV+ women from ASIA contributed to the increase of cryptococcosis in females. A total of 129 clinical isolates of both surveys were genotyped by PCR fingerprinting to study the prevalence of different genotypes. The prevalence of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii (serotype A) with the genotypes VNA1 and VNA2 was higher in Germany and Austria (74.5%) than in Switzerland (52%), while in Switzerland the Cr. neoformans hybrids AD (26%) and Cr. neoformans var. neoformans (serotype D) (22%) were more prevalent compared with Germany and Austria (8 and 17.5% respectively). Cryptococcus gattii isolates were studied by FT-IR spectroscopy. DNA in the ITS region was sequenced to get further information about Cr. neoformans serotype AD strains and about the geographical origin of the Cr. gattii isolates. The ITS sequence of the serotype AD isolates of the genotypes VNAD1, VNAD2 and VNAD4 is usually identical to serotype A or serotype D respectively. In the three isolates of the genotype VNAD3 a genotype-specific sequence pattern was detected. Two autochthonous infections due to Cr. gattii could indicate that the genotype VGIV with the ITS type 'Asia 2' might be endemic in Europe.

Retrospective Study of the Epidemiology and Clinical Manifestations of Cryptococcus gattii Infections in Colombia from 1997–2011

“…Another study reported a prevalence of 30% of C. gattii in hospitalized AIDS patients in Botswana [77] ( Table S3 ). On the other hand, the overall prevalence in Europe is low, and many of the cases are from people immigrating coming from other regions in the world where cryptococcosis is more common [10] , [68] , [69] . Against this trend, an apparently endemic strain from an environmental source in the Netherlands was recently reported [116] .…”

Global Molecular Epidemiology ofCryptococcus neoformansandCryptococcus gattii: An Atlas of the Molecular Types

“…Geographic distribution of the molecular types identified in Europe (c). Molecular typing data have been combined from the following references: Portugal [14, 56], Spain [56, 64–71], France [11, 72], Belgium [11, 56], The Netherlands [11, 73–75], Switzerland [73, 76, 77], Austria [56, 77], Italy [38, 53, 56, 78–85], Germany [13, 77], Denmark [11, 86], Sweden [56], Bulgaria [56], Russia [56], Greece [34, 56, 87], Croatia [88], Hungary [56], and Poland [56]. …”

A retrospective study of contributing factors for prognosis and survival length of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis in Southern part of China (1998–2013)

“…Unlike data collected from North America [9,10], South America [7,8], Europe [11] and other countries in Asia [5,6,12], the incidence of cryptococcosis in immunocompetent patients is high in China. Chen et al [1] had summarized some features of cryptococcosis in China, but their focus was towards therapy.…”