Sporadic acute non-A non-B hepatitis complicated by aplastic anemia

A 19-year-old woman developed acute jaundice and abnormal liver tests showing acute viral hepatitis, presumably non-A non-B. The viral hepatitis, on the 4th day after admission, was complicated by aplastic anemia. Therapy with hydrocortisone promptly instituted was ineffective and a bone marrow transplantation was not possible because we could not find a compatible donor. Sixty-five days after admission the patient died of infection by Candida tropicalis. Postmortem examination showed total medullary aplasia with massive impoverishment of all the lymphatic structures and multiple fungal infarctions in the myocardium, lungs, spleen, kidneys, and liver.