Fatal aspergillosis associated with smoking contaminated marijuana, in a marrow transplant recipient

Abstract

A 34-year-old man presented with pulmonary aspergillosis on the 75th day after marrow transplant for chronic myelogenous leukemia. The patient had smoked marijuana heavily for several weeks prior to admission. Cultures of the marijuana revealed Aspergillus fumigatus with morphology and growth characteristics identical to the organism grown from open lung biopsy specimen. Despite aggressive antifungal therapy, the patient died with disseminated disease. Physicians should be aware of this potentially lethal complication of marijuana use in compromised hosts.