Pulmonary Sporothrix schenckii infection in a HIV positive child.

Sporothrix schenckii is a ubiquitous fungus, causing mostly non life-threatening localized infections of the skin and subcutaneous tissues that can be treated with oral antifungal agents. Meningeal, pulmonary and osteoarticular dissemination occur mainly in immunosuppressed patients. Pulmonary sporotrichosis is rare and responds poorly to treatment. Cases of disseminated sporotrichosis have most frequently been reported in patients residing in South America and Asia, and have increasingly been reported in AIDS patients. The distribution and pathogenicity of S. schenckii in Sub-Saharan Africa is not well known. We report a case of invasive pulmonary sporotrichosis in an eleven year old HIV-infected boy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, successfully treated with oral fluconazole.