Acute disseminated aspergillosis during the neonatal period. Report of an instance in a 14-day-old infant.

We describe an infant who died with extensive lesions of disseminated aspergillosis on the 18th day of postnatal life. Aspergillus fumigatus was recovered from blood cultures. Initial clinical manifestations were suggestive of hepatitis, and steroids and antibiotics were used in the treatment. This therapy may have fostered the onset of an opportunistic mycosis. Advanced multisystemic aspergillotic lesions were seen at autopsy, especially prominent in lungs and gastrointestinal tract. The extent and magnitude of the lesions observed suggest inception of the disease very early in life, although no case of human aspergillosis has been known to be congenital. Neonatal aspergillosis is poorly characterized. Only four previously reported cases came to our notice in which the disease could be diagnosed in the first month of life. The ubiquitous nature of pathogenic Aspergillus, joined to aggresive treatments designed to achieve increased survivals in neonatology, could potentially result in greater numbers of cases of this and other uncommon mycoses.