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Malaria remains the most important parasitic disease worldwide. Falciparum malaria is a medical emergency and requires immediate diagnosis and treatment. Cerebral malaria is a rapidly progressive, potentially fatal complication of Plasmodium falciparum infection. This case, including post-mortem observations, histology, and laboratory diagnosis, emphasizes the necessity of appropriate advice regarding malaria prophylaxis before travel to an endemic area. Malaria should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with fever and/or nonspecific flu-like symptoms after traveling to endemic countries

The case of a patient with a newly diagnosed HIV infection and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia is presented. Despite treatment with high-dose trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) and prednisone with initial improvement, the patient acutely deteriorated with severe acidosis and died on the 4th day of hospitalization. Cryptococcus neoformans grew the next day in broncheoalveolar lavage (BAL) and blood culture. As simultaneous presence of more than one opportunistic infection can occur in these patients, systematic workup for other common opportunistic infections must be performed.

A case of intestinal cryptosporidiosis in an eight-year-old boy is presented. The patient became ill during a visit to a farm where diarrhoea in newborn calves is a recurrent problem. Furthermore, on that farm kittens periodically suffer from diarrhoea and failure to thrive. Oocysts of Cryptosporidium sp. were identified in the stool of the patient, and in the stool of the cat he had contact with. At that time the calves were not infected. The patient's gastrointestinal symptomatology consisted of severe diarrhoea, vomiting, colics and moderate dehydration, and was preceded by coughing.

By auramine and modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining, cryptosporidial oocysts were found in the stools of 31 (1.36%) out of 2,367 patients with diarrhoea. All specimens were also tested for Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter, Yersinia, and Rotavirus. Among these patients, 432 were children and 24 (5.5%) of them were positive for cryptosporidia. All children infected with cryptosporidia were immunocompetent. Watery diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain were the most frequent symptoms. The survey showed that in patients with gastroenteritis, cryptosporidial oocysts were found more commonly in the stools of children than in those of adults, and the prevalence of infection was the highest in August and September (16 cases). The epidemiological aspects and clinical significance are discussed.