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Case Series: Report of the First Two Human Indigenous Cases of Cryptococcus gattii Infection in Eastern Canada

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Abstract

We report the two first cases of human C. gattii meningoencephalitis acquired on the Canadian east coast, from the province of Quebec. Unlike C. neoformans, C. gattii is not known to have an established ecological niche on the North American east coast. C. gattii has recently been responsible for major outbreaks in British Columbia, Canada, and in the American pacific northwest. However, no human cases acquired in other Canadian provinces have been reported to our knowledge. The source of acquisition remains unclear for both patients but since neither had traveled outside of the province of Quebec, we discuss the possibilities of environmental and animal-associated acquisition, as well as the possible established endemicity in new areas. These cases add to the growing reported human and animal cases in areas previously not thought to be endemic for C. gattii.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the contributions of: Shawn R. Lockhart, Director, Fungal Reference Laboratory Team Lead, Antifungal Laboratory Mycotic Diseases Branch Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dave Engelthaler, Director, Programs & Operations TGen North Flagstaff, Arizona; Sudha Chaturvedi, Director, Mycology Laboratory Assistant Professor, Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany; Karen Bartlett, MScOEH Program Director, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

    Jessica St-Pierre & Émilie Lévesque

  2. Laboratoire de Santé Publique du Québec, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Canada

    Philippe J. Dufresne & Jean Longtin

  3. Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada

    Alex Carignan

  4. Département de Biologie Médicale, Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, Université de Montréal, 5400 Boul. Gouin Ouest, Montreal, QC, H4J 1C5, Canada

    Francis Bernard & Louiselle LeBlanc

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  1. Jessica St-Pierre
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  2. Philippe J. Dufresne
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  3. Alex Carignan
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  4. Émilie Lévesque
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  5. Francis Bernard
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  6. Jean Longtin
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  7. Louiselle LeBlanc
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Correspondence to Louiselle LeBlanc.

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St-Pierre, J., Dufresne, P.J., Carignan, A. et al. Case Series: Report of the First Two Human Indigenous Cases of Cryptococcus gattii Infection in Eastern Canada. Mycopathologia 183, 399–406 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11046-017-0215-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11046-017-0215-8

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