At the end of April-beginning of May 2022, 4 persons of the same family were hospitalized in intensive care and pneumology at the University Hospital of Pointe à Pitre for severe pneumopathy. Three of these patients required oxygen therapy.
These pneumopathies occurred after the cleaning of a hut left abandoned for years. A lot of ground and dust had accumulated and blowers were used to remove the dirt from the hut.
This epidemiological and clinical context is very similar to that of a cluster that occurred in Martinique in 2005 in which Histoplasma capsulatum was found as the etiological agent.
However, the first clinical investigations did not reveal Histoplasma capsulatum, either in culture or by PCR. Therefore, another diagnosis was proposed, subacute hypersensitivity pneumopathy.
Environmental samples were taken in and around the hut. The search for fungi by metagenomics was decided on the soils in order to try to identify Histoplasma capsulatum or other fungi that could be the cause of hypersensitivity.
