We saw a patient recently a Childrens Hospital, Boston who persihed
from a fulminant pulmonary infection. All cultures, stains and serologies
were negative but on EM, the lungs were loaded with bizarre single-celled
organisms looking a little microsporidium like. We've shown the photos to
all sorts of experts to no avail. Of note, the child had the unusual habit
of allowing his parrot to eat food off his tongue (no, I am not joking).
We still have plenty of frozen tissue and it occurred to me that someone
in this group might have the tools to use, say, rRNA probes to at least
get a handle on the approximate phylogeny of the beasts. Any info appreciated.
Robin Colgrove
Fellow, Division of Infectious Diseases
Harvard School of Medicine
colgrove at xtal11.harvard.edu
