Candida dubliniensis is an uncommon species of Candida which has been implicated in fungal pneumonia only very rarely. We present the case of a 75-year-old man with laryngeal cancer undergoing chemotherapy on broad-spectrum antibiotics and tuberculosis therapy with blood and endotracheal cultures positive for C. dubliniensis. Subsequent autopsy was performed with postmortem lung cultures positive for C. dubliniensis and lung histopathology demonstrating an invasive fungal infection. Molecular analysis of the lung tissue confirmed the identity of the fungi as C. dubliniensis. Since its discovery as a pathogen in the oral cavities of HIV-positive patients, C. dubliniensis has been identified in a wide spectrum of clinical scenarios and anatomic locations but manifests only rarely as pneumonia. This report represents a novel case of C. dubliniensis pneumonia confirmed by culture, histopathology, and molecular identification.
Keywords: Candida dubliniensis; Molecular; Pneumonia; Tuberculosis.