HISTOPLASMOSIS

Abstract

HISTOPLASMOSIS should be of interest to dermatologists because cutaneous or mucomembranous lesions have been observed in one half of the reported cases. The literature has been reviewed, disclosing reports on 88 patients with the disease. In 1945, Parsons and Zarafonetis¹ referred to 71 of these cases. We have read of 17 more² and have added 1 of our own. Cutaneous or mucomembranous lesions were observed in 45 (50 per cent) of the 88 patients.³ We believe that these facts warrant a review of the subject. HISTORICAL REVIEW Darling observed the first cases of histoplasmosis in Panama in 1906,^3h 1908³ⁱ and 1909⁴ while searching for examples of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis. Strong^2a saw a patient in the Philippine Islands at about the same time with an abscess which may have been due to the same or to a similar organism. Darling named the