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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2020; 12(01): 38-43
DOI: 10.4103/ijmbs.ijmbs_5_20
Original Article

Cryptococcal meningitis in Qatar: A hospital based study from 2005-2015

Fahmi Khan
1   Department of Medicine, Infectious Disease Division, Doha
,
Mohamed Khattab
2   Department of Medicine, Infectious Disease Division, Doha
,
Mohamed Qamar
2   Department of Medicine, Infectious Disease Division, Doha
,
Muna Al Maslamani
2   Department of Medicine, Infectious Disease Division, Doha
,
Hussam Al Soub
2   Department of Medicine, Infectious Disease Division, Doha
,
Anand Deshmukh
3   Department of Microbiology, Hamad General Hospital, Doha
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Introduction: Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is an opportunistic and life-threatening infection, affecting mainly patients with AIDS. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of CM and describe its clinical profile, laboratory parameters, and outcomes in patients with CM in Qatar. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at Hamad General Hospital. This study includes all patients admitted to the hospital with CM from January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2015. Results: Eleven patients were included in the study, representing 0.01% of the total admissions and 1.1% of all reported meningitis cases during the study; their mean age was 38.5 ± 12 years. Seven patients (63.6%) were males, and most of them were Filipinos. The most frequent presenting symptom was a headache. Six patients (54.5%) were HIV seropositive, three (27.3%) had preexisting immunosuppressive disorders, and two patients (18.2%) had no risk factors. All the patients tested positive in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) India ink examination and had a positive CSF culture for Cryptococcus neoformans. All patients received amphotericin B or liposomal amphotericin B with or without 5-flucytosine as induction treatment. Ten patients received fluconazole as consolidation/maintenance therapy. Eight patients (72.7%) were cured at the end of the treatment period. Two patients (18.2%) left before treatment completion, while one patient (9%) died during admission. Conclusions: CM is rare in Qatar and affects both HIV-positive and HIV-negative expatriates. Clinical presentation is nonspecific and requires a high index of suspicion.

Key-words:

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome - amphotericin B - cryptococcal - fluconazole - flucytosine - meningitis - voriconazole

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 11 February 2020

Accepted: 13 March 2020

Article published online:
07 July 2022

© 2020. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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