Cryptococcal meningitis relapse in an immunocompetent patient

Background: Cryptococcal meningitis is a common opportunistic infection in patients with underlying immunosuppressive state specially AIDS patients. However, it could be seen in immunocompetent patients mostly in tropical areas. There are scanty reports of such infection in healthy patients of non-tropical areas. Patient: We report an immunocompetent 43 years old Iranian man who was in excellent health status until 3 weeks before hospitalization when he developed headache. He experienced a 5-week delay in diagnosis of cryptococcal meningitis which led to his blindness of right eye despite treatment. Conclusion: We believed that the nonspecific clinical and laboratory finding of the present case and also the rarity of disease in our area especially in immunocompetent patients made his diagnosis confounding.