Rochalimaea Infections

Excerpt

Rochalimaea are gram-negative bacteria that are recently discovered agents of new clinical syndromes, including bacillary angiomatosis (BA) and bacillary peliosis hepatis, and two well-known diseases, cat scratch disease (CSD) and trench fever. Trench fever, first described as an epidemic infection in World War I, was attributed to louse-borne Rochalimaea quintana infections, which were thought to be quite rare in the United States. Rochalimaea henselae is a newly described member of the genus,¹ very closely related to R quintana, and was first shown to be a causative agent of BA,² peliosis hepatis,^3,4 and a febrile bacteremia syndrome⁵ in 1990. Recent studies have also demonstrated that R quintana infection can also produce BA in patients who have tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus.⁶Rochalimaea henselae may also cause a syndrome resembling trench fever in immunocompetent individuals exposed to tick bites,⁷ and a few patients without