Schistosoma mekongi in Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Schistosomiasis found in communities along the Mekong River in Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is caused by the blood fluke Schistosoma mekongi. Early observations on patients in 1957 revealed severe intestinal and hepatosplenic disease. High mortality rates and widespread disease were reported from the provinces of northern Cambodia (Stung Treng and Kratié) and southern Lao PDR (Champasack) in the early 1970s and 1990s.

[Cryptococosis and HIV/AIDS: a review of 21 cases reported in the Tropical Diseases Centre, Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)].

Cryptococcus neoformans affections during HIV-infection are frequent and serious. The aim of this study was to analyse the epidemiological, clinical, biological and therapeutic characteristics of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV-positive patients, admitted into the Center for Tropical Diseases Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), during a 5-month period (May-September 2001). Twenty-one patients (20 men and one woman) were included (identification of C.

[Penicillium marneffei infection and AIDS. A review of 12 cases reported in the Tropical Diseases Centre, Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)].

Penicillium marneffei is a thermal dimorphic fungus which is endemic in an ecologic niche restricted to the Far East and which may cause deep-seated infection in humans and rodents. Discovered in the late 1950s from the bamboo rat Rhizomys sinensis, in Vietnam, P. marneffei was initially identified in HIV-infected individuals.