Cryptosporidiosis. Report of a fatal case complicated by disseminated toxoplasmosis.

A middle-aged woman suffered from chronic diarrhea and malnutrition as a result of a small intestinal infection with a coccidial protozoan--Cryptosporidium. This parasite has been found among a wide range of reptilian, avian and mammalian hosts, but rarely in human beings. This woman ultimately died as a result of disseminated toxoplasmosis of the type usually encountered in an adult whose immune responses were compromised. There was clinical evidence of both humoral and cellular immunologic incompetence, such as depressed levels of complement and immunoglobulins, and decreased T cell reactivity, respectively. The former could be accounted for on the basis of malnutrition causing deficient protein synthesis, and the latter may have been a manifestation of altered function of transformed T cells.