Cryptococosis
Synopsis
The prefect state is called Filobasidiella neoformans Kwon-Chung. Cryptococcosis, caused by Cryptococcus neoformans, is a systemic fungal infection. C. neoformans, an encapsulated yeast causes an acute and chronic pulmonary or mengial fungal disease known as cryptococosis. The credit for the establishment of genus Cryptococcus goes to Friedrich Traugott Kützing (1883), German pharmacist and phycologist. The etymology of Cryptococcus indicate it ismade up of two parts e.g. the “Crypto” is a Greek word “Kryptos” meaning “hidden” and The “coccus” part means “berry” (spherical shape of yeast). According to Lin (2009), cryptococcal meningitis alone kills 6,24,000 people in the world annually. The first case of cryptococcosis was reported in 1941 in Calcutta, India (Reeves et al., 1941). Cryptococcosis is caused by species of the genus Cryptococcus. There are 37 species and only two species namely C. gattii and C. neoformans are medically important. Cryptococcus is Gram positive, non-motile, non-fermenting, basidiomycetous encapsulated yeast. Cryptococcus produce budded cells known as balstoconidia.