The enteroviruses, parechoviruses, and Saffold viruses are all members of the picornavirus family, a group of small, nonenveloped RNA viruses. Enteroviruses, including the polioviruses, coxsackieviruses, echoviruses, and numerically designated types, and parechoviruses constitute two distinct genera among the Picornaviridae, although…
Human cytomegaloviruses (HCMV) comprise a group of agents in the herpesvirus family known for their ubiquitous distribution in humans and in numerous other mammals. In vivo and in vitro infections with CMV are highly species specific and result in a characteristic cytopathology…
The viruses that cause varicella, zoster, measles, and mumps may complicate the management of a mother, fetus, or newborn when maternal infection with one of these agents occurs during pregnancy or at term. In the United States and other countries…
The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) pandemic remains one of the greatest public health challenges in the 21st century. More than 3 decades after the initial descriptions of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in adults and children, the epidemiology of…
Pertussis, commonly known as “whooping cough,” is an acute infectious illness of the respiratory tract causing disease in all age groups but taking its worst toll in unprotected infants and neonates too young to benefit from immunization. It is caused…
Mycoplasmas are prokaryotes of the class Mollicutes and represent the smallest known free-living organisms. Their small size of 150 to 350 nm is more on the order of viruses than of bacteria. They lack a cell wall and are bound…
In 1911, Lindner and colleagues identified typical intracytoplasmic inclusions in infants with a nongonococcal form of ophthalmia neonatorum called inclusion conjunctivitis of the newborn (ICN) or inclusion blennorrhea, leading to the elucidation of the epidemiology of sexually transmitted chlamydial infections.…
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) may spread by aerosol when an adult with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) coughs. Ninety percent of newly infected adults never develop disease; in the other 10%, TB most commonly manifests as lung disease. Infants and young children appear…
Lyme Disease Lyme disease, caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common vector-borne illness in the United States. Although, in retrospect, a form of the illness had been recognized in Scandinavia in the early 1900s, modern awareness of…
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by infection with the bacterium Treponema pallidum . Congenital syphilis results when the infection is transmitted from a pregnant mother to her fetus. Syphilis has been known for a long time to cause…