Naegleria, Acanthamoeba, Balamuthia, and Sappinia are small, free-living amebae that cause human amebic meningoencephalitis, which has two distinct clinical presentations. The more common is an acute, fulminant, and usually fatal primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) caused by Naegleria fowleri that occurs…
Parasites are divided into three main groups taxonomically: protozoans, which are unicellular, and helminths and ectoparasites, which are multicellular. Chemotherapeutic agents appropriate for one group may not be appropriate for the others, and not all drugs are readily available (…
The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs, prion diseases) are slow infections of the human nervous system, consisting of at least four diseases of humans ( Table 304.1 ): kuru; Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) with its variants—sporadic CJD (sCJD), familial CJD (fCJD), iatrogenic…
Etiology Human T-lymphotropic viruses 1 (HTLV-1) and 2 (HTLV-2) are members of the Deltaretrovirus genus of the Retroviridae family and are single-stranded RNA viruses that encode reverse transcriptase, an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase that transcribes the single-stranded viral RNA into a…
Advances in research and major improvements in the treatment and management of HIV infection have brought about a substantial decrease in the incidence of new HIV infections and AIDS in children. Globally, from 2000 to 2015, there has been an…
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Rabies virus is a bullet-shaped, negative-sense, single-stranded, enveloped RNA virus from the family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssavirus. There currently are 14 species of Lyssavirus. The classic rabies virus (genotype 1) is distributed worldwide and naturally infects a large variety of animals.…
The hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is caused by multiple closely related hantaviruses that have been identified from the western United States, with sporadic cases reported from the eastern United States ( Fig. 299.1 ) and Canada and important foci of…
Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is a prevalent human pathogen and an important cause of meningitis in children and adults. Capable of crossing the placenta and infecting the fetus, LCMV is also an important cause of neurologic birth defects and encephalopathy…
Viral hemorrhagic fevers are a loosely defined group of clinical syndromes in which hemorrhagic manifestations are either common or especially notable in severe illness. Both the etiologic agents and clinical features of the syndromes differ, but coagulopathy may be a…