Disseminated Talaromyces marneffei infection mimicking intestinal tuberculosis

Abstract

A 27-year-old immunocompetent man presented to our hospital with fever (maximum 38·7°C), coughing with sputum, diarrhoea, right lower abdominal pain, and weight loss of 6 kg over 3 months. He had repeatedly caught and eaten wild Rhizomys pruinosus (hoary bamboo rat) in the 4 months before admission. His medical history was unremarkable, except that he had not ever been vaccinated with the BCG vaccine. Laboratory examinations revealed that his white blood cell count was 7·25 × 109/L, procalcitonin count was lower than 0·05 ng/mL, erythrocyte sedimentation rate was 46 mm/h, and hypersensitive C-reactive protein count was 17·25 mg/L.