Histoplasmosis in HIV-Infected Persons, Yaoundé, Cameroon

To the Editor: In HIV-infected persons in Cameroon (Central Africa), histoplasmosis is still misdiagnosed as tuberculosis because of clinical similarities (1,2). These patients are automatically given presumptive antituberculous therapy, although tuberculosis is not confirmed. The patients subsequently die of probable disseminated histoplasmosis (DH), and the fungal infection might finally be detected in postmortem tissue samples (3). In this context, 3 cases of DH were detected in HIV-infected patients within a 1-year period (2007–2008) in Yaounde, Cameroon. We initiated this study to investigate the occurrence of histoplasmosis in HIV-infected patients in 4 medical centers for AIDS treatment in Yaounde from December 2008 through December 2011.