Histoplasmosis in pregnancy: case series and report of transplacental transmission.

Although a healthy pregnancy seems to confer an increased susceptibility to systemic fungal infections, to our knowledge, no known association exists in the case of Histoplasma capsulatum. In addition, to our knowledge, transplacental transmission of H capsulatum has not been previously described. We describe a series of patients treated at our institutions between 1997 and 2000 with evidence of transplacental transmission of H capsulatum. Mechanisms of increased risk of histoplasmosis during pregnancy are proposed, although this risk has yet to be proved.