| Abstract
| - Cryptococcus gattii is a group of exogenous, neurotropic yeasts that possess the capsular serotype B or C. Isolates of serotype C are extremely rare and, until recently, were known to infect only immunocompetent individuals. We genotyped 176 isolates of Cryptococcus from patients in sub-Saharan Africa who had AIDS; 22 (13.7%) of 161 isolates from Botswana and 2 (13.3%) of 15 isolates from Malawi were C. gattii serotype C strains. All of these serotype C strains belong to the rare VGIV genotype, possess the MATα mating-type allele, and exhibit little genetic diversity
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