Features of cryptococcosis among 652 HIV-seronegative individuals in France: a cross-sectional observational study (2005-2020)

International audienceObjectives: We aimed to describe features and outcomes of cryptococcosis among HIV-seronegative individuals in a large surveillance network for cryptococcosis in France.Methods: We included incident cases of cryptococcosis in HIV-seronegative individuals from 2005 to 2020. We compared patient characteristics, disease presentations, cryptococcal antigen (CrAg) results, and induction antifungal treatments according to underlying disease. We examined factors associated with 90-day mortality. Among patients with disseminated infections, we investigated whether receipt of flucytosine and polyene combination was associated with lower mortality.Results: Among 652 individuals, 209 (32.1%) had malignancy, 130 (19.9%) were solid-organ transplant (SOT) recipients, 204 (31.3%) had other immunocompromising conditions, and 109 (16.7%) had no reported underlying factor. The commonest presentations were disseminated infections (63.3%, 413/652) and isolated pulmonary infections (25.3%, 165/652). SOT patients were most likely to have disseminated infections and a positive serum CrAg result. Patients with malignancy were older and less likely to receive a flucytosine-containing regimen for disseminated infections than others (58.7%, 78/133 vs. 73.2%, 194/265, p=0.029). The crude 90-day case-fatality ratio was 27.2% (95%CI: 23.5%-31.1%). Age ≥60 years (aOR: 2.75 [1.78-4.26], p<0.001), meningitis/fungaemia (aOR: 4.79 [1.80-12.7], p=0.002), and malignancy (aOR: 2.4 [1.14-5.07], p=0.02) were associated with higher 90-day mortality. Receipt of flucytosine and polyene combination was associated with lower 90-day mortality (aOR: 0.40 [0.23-0.71], p=0.002) in multivariable analysis and inverse probability of treatment weighted analysis (aOR: 0.45 [0.25-0.80], p=0.006).Conclusions: HIV-seronegative individuals with cryptococcosis comprise a wide range of underlying conditions with different presentations and outcomes, requiring a tailored approach to diagnosis and management

Dengue

Lecture 49 ISBN e-book : 9781615045754International audienc

A highly virulent variant of HIV-1 circulating in the Netherlands.

We discovered a highly virulent variant of subtype-B HIV-1 in the Netherlands. One hundred nine individuals with this variant had a 0.54 to 0.74 log &lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt; increase (i.e., a ~3.5-fold to 5.5-fold increase) in viral load compared with, and exhibited CD4 cell decline twice as fast as, 6604 individuals with other subtype-B strains. Without treatment, advanced HIV-CD4 cell counts below 350 cells per cubic millimeter, with long-term clinical consequences-is expected to be reached, on average, 9 months after diagnosis for individuals in their thirties with this variant. Age, sex, suspected mode of transmission, and place of birth for the aforementioned 109 individuals were typical for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands, which suggests that the increased virulence is attributable to the viral strain. Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in the 1990s from de novo mutation, not recombination, with increased transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence