Cave visit linked to suspected histoplasmosis cluster in 12 family travelers from Costa Rica

An outbreak report describes a case series of 12 members of an extended family who traveled from Georgia, Texas, and Washington to Costa Rica. The suspected exposure was a visit to Venado Caves in Costa Rica. No comparator group was reported.

The main finding was a cluster of 12 suspected histoplasmosis cases associated with the cave visit. The report states all 12 family members developed suspected infection. No specific effect size, p-values, or confidence intervals were provided for this association.

Safety and tolerability data were not reported. The report explicitly notes an association was reported between the cave visit and suspected cases, but causation was not established. A key limitation is that cases were described as 'suspected' with no diagnostic confirmation method reported. Other limitations and funding sources were not reported.

For practice, this report highlights a potential exposure setting for histoplasmosis. However, given the lack of diagnostic confirmation and the observational nature of the report, the findings should be interpreted cautiously as describing a temporal and geographical association rather than proven causation.