ABSTRACT
Subsequently, V. corneae was detected in the sinunasal aspirate and urine samples of an African patient with AIDS-E. hellem, con–rming the ability of V. corneae to disseminate and survive in deep tissues at least in the immunocompromised host [16-18,20]. Since then, a few other cases of V. corneae ocular infections have been reported in United States and Europe [21,22]. In a more recent case, a V. corneae-infected 50-year-old male from Cyprus, with negative HIV serology, presented with a right keratitis, showing a yellowish ¼occular corneal opacity and reduced visual acuity. Light microscopy of biopsy tissues revealed abundant microsporidia within the stroma; electron microscopy con–rmed that the spores of 3.3 × 1.4 μm in size contained a diplokaryotic nucleus and a single row of 10 polar tube coils and were linearly arranged in groups of about 4-8 [5]. Additionally, a Vittaforma corneae-like organism was described from a signi–cant number of infections in HIVpositive and HIV-negative patients in Portugal [23].
