Histoplasma capsulatum isolated from feather pillow associated with histoplasmosis in an infant.

Feathers from an old baby pillow yielded Histoplasma capsulatum in an epidemiologic study of histoplasmosis in an infant. Efforts to exclude other possible sources of infection, including blood donor and placental transmission, were exhaustive. Although histoplasmosis has long been associated with soils in avian habitats, the feather itself has not been implicated heretofore.