FUSARIUM-SOLANI FUNGEMIA IN A BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT

Disseminated Fusarium solani infection, with its distinctive skin lesi ons, is an emerging cause of mortality in bone marrow transplant recip ients worldwide. However, it has never been reported before in Taiwan. We report a 21-year-old man with disseminated fusariosis who develope d fever, myalgia and generalized erythematous papules on day 8 after u ndergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for severe aplastic a nemia. Histopathology of the skin lesion revealed mycotic emboli. Cult ures of both blood and tissue from skin biopsy grew Fusarium solani. D espite amphotericin B therapy, fever persisted and graft failure devel oped. A second transplantation, using mobilized peripheral blood stem cells from the same donor, was tried but the patient died of progressi ve multiple organ failure before any evidence of engraftment.