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Case Series and Report of Transplacental Transmission

Stevan P. Whitt, MD; George A. Koch, MD; Belinda Fender, MD; Nathaniel Ratnasamy, MD; E. Dale Everett, MD

Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:454-458.

Although a healthy pregnancy seems to confer an increased susceptibility to systemic fungal infections, to our knowledge, no known association exists in the case of Histoplasma capsulatum. In addition, to our knowledge, transplacental transmission of H capsulatum has not been previously described. We describe a series of patients treated at our institutions between 1997 and 2000 with evidence of transplacental transmission of H capsulatum. Mechanisms of increased risk of histoplasmosis during pregnancy are proposed, although this risk has yet to be proved.

From the Divisions of Pulmonary/Critical Care (Dr Whitt), Infectious Diseases (Drs Koch and Everett), and Pathology (Dr Fender), the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Missouri–Columbia; and the McFarland Clinic, Ames, Iowa (Dr Ratnasamy). The authors have no relevant financial interest in this article.

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