Molecular Evidence That the Range of the Vancouver Island Outbreak of Cryptococcus gattii Infection Has Expanded into the Pacific Northwest in the United States

Cryptococcus neoformans frequently causes fungal meningitis in immunocompromised patients, whereas the related species C. gattii is restricted to tropical and subtropical regions, where it usually infects immunocompetent individuals. An outbreak of C. gattii infection that began in 1999 on Vancouver...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 2009-04, Vol.199 (7), p.1081-1086
Main Authors: Byrnes III, Edmond J., Bildfell, Robert J., Frank, Sheryl A., Mitchell, Thomas G., Marr, Kieren A., Heitman, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleles
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
British Columbia - epidemiology
Cryptococcosis - epidemiology
Cryptococcosis - microbiology
Cryptococcosis - veterinary
Cryptococcus
Cryptococcus - classification
Cryptococcus - genetics
Cryptococcus neoformans
Disease Outbreaks
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Fungi
Genotype
Genotypes
Humans
Infections
Infectious diseases
Medical sciences
Microbiology
Molecular Epidemiology
Northwestern United States - epidemiology
Pathogens
Veterinary medicine
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Cryptococcus neoformans frequently causes fungal meningitis in immunocompromised patients, whereas the related species C. gattii is restricted to tropical and subtropical regions, where it usually infects immunocompetent individuals. An outbreak of C. gattii infection that began in 1999 on Vancouver Island has resulted in endemic C. gattii infection and caused numerous human and veterinary infections; the outbreak’s range has spread to mainland British Columbia. The outbreak-related isolates have been molecular type VGIIa, the major genotype, or VGIIb, the minor genotype. Since 2006, human and veterinary cases of C. gattii infection have emerged in Washington and Oregon. Multilocus sequence typing demonstrates the spread of C. gattii VGIIa and VGIIb from Vancouver Island to the Pacific Northwest. Clinical strains recovered in Oregon represent a unique VGIIc genotype
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1086/597306