Cryptococcus neoformans var. gattii isolates from two Peruvian patients.36677

The ecology of Cryptococcus neoformans var. gatti is restricted to tropical and subtropical areas whereas C. neoformans var. neoformans is cosmopolitan. Peru is a country with three different well defined geographic areas, some of them have the conditions for the presence of the variety gattii. In order to determine the presence of the two varieties of C. neoformans in Peru, we made the C. neoformans differentiation from the clinical isolates. C. neoformans var. gattii was identified by their ability to assimilate D-proline. We tested 68 strains; only two of them were recognized as the variety gattii and were recovered from two patients without any predisposing factor. We described the clinical spectrum of these two patients, who were diagnosed with disseminated cryptococcosis and cryptococcal meningitis. Neither the presence of Eucalyptus camaldulensis nor Eucalyptus tereticornis has been reported in Peru. So there should exist other ecologic niches for the presence of C. neoformans var. gattii in our country, different from those mentioned