Talaromycosis is a fungal infection that presents with painless skin lesions of the face and neck, as well as an associated fever, anaemia, and enlargement of the lymph glands and liver.
[2] People already suffering from a weakened immune system due to conditions such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, organ transplant, long-term steroid use, old age, malnutrition or autoimmune disease are typically the ones to contract this infection.
Biopsies of skin lesions, lymph nodes, and bone marrow demonstrate the presence of organisms on histopathology.
[2] Talaromycosis is endemic exclusively to southeast Asia (including southern China and eastern India), and particularly in young farmers.
[4] The first natural human case of talaromycosis was reported in 1973 in an American minister with Hodgkin's disease who lived in Southeast Asia.
[3] Diagnosis relies on identifying Talaromyces marneffei in cultures from clinical specimens such as sputum, blood, skin scrapings, lymph node, and bone marrow,[4] by which time the disease is in the late-stage.
[8] Biopsies of skin lesions, lymph nodes, and bone marrow demonstrate the presence of organisms on histopathology.
[2] Once considered rare, its occurrence increased due to HIV/AIDS to become the third most common opportunistic infection (after extrapulmonary tuberculosis and cryptococcosis) in HIV-positive individuals within the endemic area of Southeast Asia.
[6] The first natural human case of talaromycosis was reported in 1973 in an American minister with Hodgkin's disease who lived in Southeast Asia.
[6] An antigen assay has been developed to detect a key virulence factor Mp1p that has been shown to have a high specificity for Talaromyces marneffei.