Apparent absence of Pneumocystis jirovecii in healthy subjects - Université de Bretagne Occidentale
Journal Articles Clinical Infectious Diseases Year : 2006

Apparent absence of Pneumocystis jirovecii in healthy subjects

Abstract

We prospectively investigated 30 healthy subjects with normal CD4+ T cell counts in blood and normal findings of spirometry and chest radiography for the presence of Pneumocystis jirovecii, by performing polymerase chain reaction on sputum specimens. Fifty patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were investigated at the same time in the same manner; this group was used as controls for the diagnosis of pulmonary colonization with P. jirovecii. None of the healthy subjects had positive test results, whereas the fungus was detected in 8 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The results suggest that in our region (Amiens, France), P. jirovecii is apparently uncommon in healthy subjects and that this population, therefore, plays a minor role in circulation of the fungus within human communities.

Dates and versions

hal-00559705 , version 1 (26-01-2011)

Identifiers

Cite

Gilles Nevez, Eline Magois, Hyacinthe Duwat, Valérie Gouilleux, Vincent Jounieaux, et al.. Apparent absence of Pneumocystis jirovecii in healthy subjects. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2006, 42 (11), pp.e99-e101. ⟨10.1086/503908⟩. ⟨hal-00559705⟩

Collections

UNIV-BREST
49 View
0 Download

Altmetric

Share

More