Young man dies of rare fungal infection in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: A young man died of Histoplasmosis, a very rare fungal infection, while another patient survived in the capital, claimed infectious diseases expert at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad.

“Histoplasmosis is a very rare disease and it is believed that it is not present in Pakistan. We got two patients, including a young man - who was brought six months ago - and died during treatment. We diagnosed him with the help of biopsy and culture. But we need availability of Urinary Histoplasma Antigen test to diagnose this fungal infection as we are seeing these cases in Pakistan now,” Prof Nasim Akhtar, head of infectious diseases hospital at PIMS Islamabad told The News.

She said the second patient diagnosed with Histoplasmosis survived with help of anti-fungal medicines.

Histoplasma is a fungal infection and the fungus thrive in soil that contains large amounts of bird or bat droppings, said Prof Nasim.

She said, “We often suspect some kind of a rare infection but as we don’t have the confirmed diagnosis, we can’t treat the patient with confidence. If we have diagnostic facilities at our centres, we can timely diagnose and save the lives of the patients with targeted therapies,” she added.

Commenting on the presence of Histoplasmosis in Pakistan, infectious diseases expert Dr Naseem Salahuddin, Indus Hospital Karachi, said, “No infectious diseases expert from any part of the country has reported any case of Histoplasmosis. Not all fungi, parasite or bacteria are necessarily present in every region of the world. Aspergillus is the most common fungal infection followed by candida.”

The infectious disease specialist had earlier reported two confirmed cases of ‘Leptospirosis’ at PIMS Islamabad, saying a young man had died of bacterial disease caused by Leptospira while a woman from Murree had survived following treatment with antibiotic medicines.