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The Caribbean islands are presumed to be an endemic zone for Histoplasma capsulatum infection, but no epidemiological studies have been done in this area. Our purpose was to report the epidemiology of histoplasmosis from 1991 to 1997 in the French West Indies (Martinique). Cases identified from the register of the mycology laboratory were analysed retrospectively. Ten cases (9 male and 1 female) were identified; 8 of the patients were infected with HIV (average T4 lymphocyte count in these 8 patients was 32/mm3). Eight patients had cutaneous involvement. The incidence in AIDS patients was 1.7%. The annual incidence in the general population was 0.34/100,000. Our data showed that histoplasmosis is endemic in Martinique, with an incidence in AIDS patients slightly inferior to that in endemic areas of the USA. The high rate of cutaneous forms (80%) is uncommon.

The epidemiology of melanoma in populations of African-European descent has rarely been reported. The authors studied melanoma in the French West Indies (Martinique), where black Caribbeans and whites represented 96% and 4% of the population, respectively. Among the 85 cases of melanoma collected from 1976 to 1995, blacks represented 75% and whites, 25%. The average incidence rates were 1.48 and 0.9 per 100,000 per year in females and males, respectively. The sole of the foot represented 72% of the primary sites in blacks. Breslow's tumor thickness was > 1.5 mm in 68% of the cases. The 5-year survival was 44%.