<i>Emergomyces orientalis</i> Emergomycosis Diagnosed by Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing
He Da, Min Quan, Hongyan Zhong, Zhixing Chen, Xioahui Wang, Fang He, Junyan Qu, Taoyou Zhou, Xiaoju Lv, Zhiyong Zong
Abstract
E mergomycosis (formerly called emmonsiosis) is an emerging dimorphic fungal disease, usually caused by Emergomyces pasteurianus or Es. africanus, usually disseminated and commonly identified and fatal in immunocompromised patients, especially HIV-positive patients from South Africa (1,2). Diagnosis of emergomycosis is often delayed, and best clinical practices for diagnosing and treating organ transplant recipients are lacking. Five species with different geographic distributions have been described: Es. pasteurianus, Es. africanus, Es. canadensis, Es. europaeus, and Es. orientalis. Globally, the only case of Es. orientalis infection, reported in China in 2017, was initially misdiagnosed as disseminated cryptococcosis (3). We report another case of Es. orientalis infection involving lung and soft tissue damage that was diagnosed early and accurately and treated precisely.