Disseminated infection with Conidiobolus incongruus.

The first fatal case of disseminated infection due to Conidiobolus incongruus is reported. The patient presented with a subcutaneous mass, febrility, weight loss, cough and hemoptysis. Histological examination of skin and subcutaneous tissue, lung, lymph nodes, esophagus, liver and jejunum showed a granulomatous reaction with bright eosinophilic amorphous material and broad hyphae. A fungus cultured from skin and subcutaneous tissue was identified as Conidiobolus incongruus.

[Ecology of opportunistic fungi]. / Ecologie des champignons opportunistes.

As most of the pathogenic fungi, opportunistic fungi have a saprophytic life in the soil. The knowledge of their life in natural conditions may allow to avoid their proliferation in the vicinity of man. Examples of ecology were taken among Aspergilli and mycetoma-inducing fungi. The ecology of these fungi was studied in Senegal-Mauritania where mycetoma is fairly frequent and well studied. Cultures of L. senegalensis and L. tompkinsii were very often isolated from dry thorns of acacias or other thorn trees. M. mycetomi, the most frequent mycetoma-inducing fungus, was very difficult to culture from wood or soil specimens. A special selective sulphide medium had to be used. Some strains of M. mycetomi were isolated from specimens taken off the surface of termitaria.

[Mycetoma in Somalia - results of a survey done from 1959 to 1964]. / Les mycétomes en Somalie - conclusions d'une enquête menée de 1959 à 1964.

The Pasteur Institute studied 103 mycetoma patients in Somalia between 1959 and 1964. Grains were seen in 94 of them and this, added to cultural features, allowed the diagnosis of 60 pathogens as follows: 44 Madurella mycetomi, 1 Leptosphaeria senegalensis, 7 Pyrenochaeta romeroi (or Madurella grisea), 3 Allescheria boydii, 1 Fusarium sp., 3 Neotestudina (Zopfia) rosatii, and 1 unidentified; 34 were actinomycetes: 24 Streptomyces somaliensis, 4 Actinomadura madurae, 3 A. pelletieri and 3 Nocardia spp. The patients delayed too long in consulting their doctors and health education is vital if amputations are to be avoided. The geographical distribution is related to climate and fungal species. In central Somalia the association of M. mycetomi and S. somaliensis, organisms characteristic of desert conditions, was found; white grain mycetomata and those caused by Nocardia spp. occurred in more humid areas. The study revealed 2 new fungi. One, obtained in culture was called Neotestudina (Zopfia) rosatii. The 3 patients affected, lived in Mudugh (2 in El Bur). The other fungus was not identified. It also was recovered from El Bur and one with similar microscopic characters has been seen in Chad and also in "territoire français des Afars et des Issas". Both fungi are desert species.

[Purification of a protein characteristic of pathogenic strains of "Beauveria tenella" (author's transl)]. / Purification d'une protéine caractéristique des souches pathogènes de Beauveria tenella

Purification of the protein which in immunoelectrophoresis is responsible for the precipitation are characteristic of the pathogenic strains, can easily be obtained by isoelectrofocalisation: two protein fractions are isolated. These differ in their isoelectric points and in their relative electrophoretic migration coefficients in polyacrylamide gel, but exhibit the same antigenic specificity.