Background
Lobomycosis (lacaziosis) is a self-limited, chronic fungal infection of the skin endemic in rural regions in South America and Central America. Natives of the Brazilian rain forest call this disease miraip or piraip, meaning “that which burns.”
Jorge Lobo first described this infection in the medical literature
as keloidal blastomycosis in a patient from the Amazon Valley of Brazil. Since the original report, lobomycosis has been reported in many South American countries, in North American travelers to endemic regions, closely related disease in two species of Atlantic dolphins, and in one marine park dolphin trainer.
The condition was called Lobo disease in 1938, in 1958 the name lobomycosis was applied, and in 2005 the name lacaziosis was suggested.
Three species names have been recommended: Loboa loboi
; Paracoccidioides loboi
because of its antigenic relationship to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis; and Lacazia loboi
in deference to Lacaz, who contributed much to the knowledge of the disease. Other names that have been used are Glenosporella loboi and Blastomyces loboi. Based on recent molecular studies, the name Lacazia loboi is the current recommended name.
As is common in medical mycology, the name of the disease is taken from the genus of the etiologic agent, and therefore, lacaziosis has been proposed for the disease name rather than lobomycosis.
Phylogenetic and genomic analyses indicate that it is a sister taxon of the human dimorphic fungal pathogen P brasiliensis and that both species belong to the order Onygenales.