Brucellosis Waseem Ahmad James W. Myers ORGANISM Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease, reported for the first time in 1859 by Marston, in Malta. Brucellae are intracellular pathogens that can survive…

Rabies Abdel Kareem Abu-Malouh Jonathan P. Moorman INTRODUCTION Rabies is an acute CNS disease caused by rabies virus infection. Rabies virus is a bullet-shaped virus with a single-stranded RNA, a…

Bartonella James W. Myers INTRODUCTION Bartonella Gram-negative Intracellular Grow on solid media (shell vial tissue cultures, blood enriched) CLINICAL FEATURES 1. Classic Bartonella, Carrion Disease. Epidemiology/Pathology Bartonella bacilliformis Human reservoir…

Animal Bites Paras Patel James W. Myers INTRODUCTION Animal bites account for 1% of all visits to emergency rooms in the United States. Two to five million animal bites occur…

Candidemia Keith W. Hamilton Ebbing Lautenbach INTRODUCTION The incidence of invasive fungal infections has increased as an unintended consequence of increased use of immunosuppression to treat certain medical conditions and…

Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria Ramzy H. Rimawi Paul Cook INTRODUCTION Health care-associated infections are the leading cause of mortality in acute care hospitals, with over 50% of them due to infections…

Epidemiologically Important Resistant Gram-Positive Bacteria in Health Care Cassandra D. Salgado The incidence of clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance among gram-positive organisms has significantly increased. This has resulted in important changes…

Health Care-Associated Clostridium difficile Infection Carlene A. Muto INTRODUCTION Clostridium difficile is a spore-forming, obligate anaerobic, gram-positive rod. It derives its name from observations in the laboratory. The organism was…

Management of Occupational Blood-Borne Pathogen Exposure Ivar L. Frithsen INTRODUCTION Blood-borne pathogen exposures (BBPE) among health care personnel (HCP) can occur in virtually all clinical settings with an estimated annual…