Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases

Kawasaki Disease

Revised November 8, 2020 Kawasaki disease (KD) is a self-limited vasculitis of infants and children that is now the most common cause of acquired heart disease in developed countries. Although the disease was first described by Tomisaku Kawasaki in Japan…

Ticks, Including Tick Paralysis

Ticks are the most competent and versatile of all arthropod vectors of zoonotic infectious diseases for several reasons. First, ticks are not afflicted by most of the microorganisms that they may transmit or the paralytic salivary toxins that they may…

Mites, Including Chiggers

Mites, including chigger and scabies mites, are among the smallest arthropods, with most barely visible without magnification. Only about 20 species of the more than 3000 species of chigger, animal, plant, and scabies mites are of any medical importance, and…

Myiasis and Tungiasis

Flies and fleas are mostly bothersome biting nuisances of humans and animals that can also transmit infectious diseases and deeply invade living tissues, causing amputation, disfigurement, and, rarely, death. Flies can serve as mechanical vectors of shigellosis, and rat fleas…

Scabies

Scabies, an infection by the itch or scabies mite, Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis, remains a major public health problem throughout the developing world ( Fig. 293.1 ). Scabies in its most severe form, crusted or Norwegian scabies ( Fig. 293.2…

Lice (Pediculosis)

Pediculosis is a complex of three different human infestations with two species of blood-sucking lice of the insect order Phthiraptera, suborder Anoplura: Pediculus humanus and Phthirus pubis. Sometime after early humans began to wear clothes, P. humanus evolved into two…

Introduction to Ectoparasitic Diseases

Ectoparasites infest the skin and its appendages, such as the hair and sebaceous glands, and most external orifices, especially the ears, nares, and orbits. Like endoparasites, ectoparasites may be obligatory parasites, programmed to feed on human hosts to complete their…