[African histoplasmosis. A case].

The case reported concerns a 12 year-old girl, native of the Cameroons, hospitalized in France for the treatment of the most severe disseminated type of African histoplasmosis (Histoplasma duboisii). In addition to a severe infectious syndrome, the child presented with 3 associated typical involvements: diffuse lymphadenopathy, skin lesions consisting of nodules of the face and trunk and suppurative osteo-articular lesions with an impressive radiological appearance: extensive bone lysis and metaphyseal fractures, without any sign of bone reconstruction, even after several months of treatment. This is rare a disease, but one that should be recognized, especially in its onset localized form, in a patient presenting with infectious osteoarthritis with a torpid evolution leading to the diagnosis of tuberculous or pyogenic infection, or even of osteosarcoma. The disseminated lesions may be difficult to distinguish from the multifocal bone lesions of sickle-cell disease osteomyelitis.