Case Report: Histoplasmosis in Himachal Pradesh (India): An Emerging Endemic Focus.

We describe four cases of histoplasmosis indigenous to Himachal Pradesh (India) that will be of considerable public health interest. A 48-year-old human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative man with cervical and mediastinal lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, adrenal mass, and bone marrow involvement was treated as disseminated tuberculosis without benefit. Progressive disseminated histoplasmosis was diagnosed from the fungus in smears from adrenal mass. Another 37-year-old HIV-positive man was on treatment of suspected pulmonary tuberculosis. He developed numerous erythema nodosum leprosum-like mucocutanous lesions accompanied by fever, generalized lymphadenopathy, and weight loss. Pulmonary histoplasmosis with cutaneous dissemination was diagnosed when skin lesions showed the fungus in smears, histopathology, and mycologic culture. Both were successfully treated with amphotericin B/itraconazole. Third patient, a 46-year-old HIV-negative man, had oropharyngeal lesions, cervical lymphadenopathy, intermittent fever, hepatosplenomegaly, and deteriorating general health. Progressive disseminated oropharyngeal histoplasmosis was diagnosed from the fungus in smears and mycologic cultures from oropharyngeal lesions and cervical lymph node aspirates. He died despite initiating treatment with oral itraconazole. Another 32-year-old man 3 months after roadside trauma developed a large ulcer with exuberant granulation tissue over left thigh without evidence of immunosuppression/systemic involvement. He was treated successfully with surgical excision of ulcer under amphotericin B/itraconazole coverage as primary cutaneous histoplasmosis confirmed pathologically and mycologically. A clinical suspicion remains paramount for early diagnosis of histoplasmosis particularly in a nonendemic area. Most importantly, with such diverse clinical presentation and therapeutic outcome selection of an appropriate and customized treatment schedule is a discretion the treating clinicians need to make.

Type 2 lepra reaction as a cause of pyrexia of unknown origin.

Leprosy, a commonly encountered disease, can rarely present as a reactional state de novo with fever as the main presenting feature. Here we describe an uncommon presentation of leprosy [with type 2 lepra reaction] as pyrexia of unknown origin with prominent rheumatologic manifestations [acute polyarthritis], renal involvement and generalized lymphadenopathy with rare presentation of type 2 lepra reaction without the classic skin lesions of erythema nodosum leprosum, occurring in a treatment naive patient without prior history of leprosy.