Diffuse cutaneous infection caused by a presumed monoxenous trypanosomatid in a patient infected with HIV.

A patient infected with human immunodeficiency virus developed a diffuse cutaneous nodular syndrome. The parasite isolated from a skin nodule was studied by isoenzymatic characterization and transmission electron microscopy of both culture forms and those in the patient's skin biopsy. The parasite's ultrastructure was that of a typical member of the family Trypanosomatidae, but it differed isoenzymatically from all 'new and 'old World' species of Leishmania, Trypanosoma and Sauroleishmania. We believe that it was a (presumably) monoxenous 'lower trypanosomatid.