Cholera is an acute and often severe watery diarrheal disease that is among the most rapidly fatal infectious diseases of humans. Previously well individuals infected with Vibrio cholerae, the comma-shaped gram-negative rod that causes this disease, can die from dehydration…
Over the past 3 decades Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis has emerged as an important and common human respiratory tract pathogen. In this chapter M. catarrhalis is discussed. In addition, Kingella and other gram-negative cocci, including Neisseria other than N. meningitidis and…
Reviewed for currency November 8, 2020 Gonorrhea is a common bacterial infection that is transmitted almost exclusively by sexual contact or perinatally and primarily affects the mucous membranes of the urethra and cervix and, less frequently, those of the rectum,…
Revised December, 2019 Definition and History Neisseria meningitidis (the meningococcus) is the cause of epidemic cerebrospinal fever, clusters and sporadic cases of acute bacterial meningitis, mild bacteremia to devastating septicemia, pneumonia, and, less commonly, septic arthritis, pericarditis, chronic bacteremia, conjunctivitis,…
Reviewed for currency January 14, 2021 Whipple disease (WD) is a rare systemic infectious disorder caused by the actinomycete Tropheryma whipplei. This chronic disease, first described by Whipple as “intestinal lipodystrophy,” preferentially affects middle-aged white men, who may present with…
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae is a thin, pleomorphic, nonsporulating gram-positive rod. First isolated from mice by Robert Koch in 1878 and from swine by Louis Pasteur in 1882, it was established as the etiologic agent of swine erysipelas in 1886 by Löffler…
Microbiology Bacteria of the genus Bacillus are well adapted to their normal environment of soil. This includes Bacillus anthracis, discussed elsewhere in this text (see Chapter 207 ). These gram-positive or gram-variable, aerobic or facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacilli have rounded…
Anthrax has never been a cause of the massive loss of life associated with cholera, plague, or smallpox, but it has played a prominent role in the history of infectious diseases. While much of the industrialized world is focused on…
Definition Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive bacillus and zoonotic and foodborne pathogen found worldwide that causes listeriosis. Listeriosis spans the clinical spectrum from self-limited febrile gastroenteritis in immunocompetent people to more severe and invasive disease that mostly affects pregnant women,…
Coryneform Bacteria Other Than Corynebacterium diphtheriae Corynebacterium was proposed as a genus by Lehmann and Neumann in 1896, who derived the name from the Greek koryne, which means “club,” and bacterion, meaning “little rod.” The coryneforms are a diverse group…