A rare case of disseminated histoplasmosis masquerading as vulvar cancer in HIV-infected patient: a case report

Abstract

Background: Histoplasmosis is a systemic mycosis caused by thermally dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum. It can be found endemically in the United States within the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys. The symptoms are often self-limiting in the immunocompetent person. In those with cell-mediated immunity defects, histoplasmosis can disseminate causing multi-organ manifestations. Two to twenty-five percent of HIV positive patients living in endemic areas are affected by histoplasmosis. In more than half of these patients, histoplasmosis is the first manifestation of this immunocompromised state. Here, we present a rare manifestation of disseminated histoplasmosis presenting as an indolent non-healing ulcerative lesion masquerading as vulvar cancer.