We report six human Dermatophilus infections diagnosed in Basel between May 2025 and March 2026. The travel-associated first case developed a pustular rash and conjunctivitis after a stay in Thailand. A second imported case occurred after travel to Indonesia. Four subsequent locally acquired cases presented with genital or inguinal folliculitis-like lesions without reported animal contact. Whole-genome sequencing placed all isolates in a monophyletic cluster within the D. congolensis_A lineage, supporting possible human-to-human transmission. Enhanced surveillance and molecular diagnostics are warranted.
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,
Roberta Di Nicola2
,
Lucija Marković3
,
Maximilian Köster1
,
Claudia Lang1
,
Marie-Thérèse Ruf1,4,5
,
Christopher M Field6
,
Sarah Tschudin-Sutter2,*
,
Alexander Navarini3,*
,
Maja Weisser1,2,3,4,5,6,*
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Affiliations:
1 Clinical Bacteriology/Mycology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
2 Division of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
3 Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
4 Swiss TPH, Allschwil, Switzerland
5 University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
* These authors contributed equally to this work and share last authorship.
Correspondence:
Peter Michael Keller
petermichael.keller usb.ch
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Citation style for this article: Keller Peter Michael, Di Nicola Roberta, Marković Lucija, Köster Maximilian, Lang Claudia, Ruf Marie-Thérèse, Field Christopher M, Tschudin-Sutter Sarah, Navarini Alexander, Weisser Maja. Human infections with Dermatophilus sp.: travel-associated first case and a local cluster in the context of emerging European outbreaks, Basel, Switzerland, 2025 to 2026. Euro Surveill. 2026;31(29):pii=2600552. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2026.31.29.2600552 Received: 29 Jun 2026; Accepted: 22 Jul 2026
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We report six human Dermatophilus infections diagnosed in Basel between May 2025 and March 2026. The travel-associated first case developed a pustular rash and conjunctivitis after a stay in Thailand. A second imported case occurred after travel to Indonesia. Four subsequent locally acquired cases presented with genital or inguinal folliculitis-like lesions without reported animal contact. Whole-genome sequencing placed all isolates in a monophyletic cluster within the D. congolensis_A lineage, supporting possible human-to-human transmission. Enhanced surveillance and molecular diagnostics are warranted.

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