BARTONELLOSIS
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The acute form of the disease gets its
name from an outbreak that occurred in 1871 near La Oroya, Peru.
More than 7,000 people perished. Some survivors later developed a
skin disease, called verruga peruana (Peruvian warts). These skin
lesions were observed prior to the 1871 outbreak--perhaps as far
back as the pre-Columbian era--but a connection to Oroya fever was
unknown. In 1885, a young medical researcher, Daniel Carrion,
inoculated himself with blood from a lesion to study the course of
the skin disease. When he became ill with Oroya fever, the
connection became apparent. Oroya fever is often called Carrion's
disease in honor of his fatal experiment.
The bacteria, Bartonella bacilliformis, was isolated by Alberto
Barton in 1909, but wasn't identified as the cause of the fever
until 1940. The Bartonella genus includes at least 11 bacteria
species, four of which cause human diseases, including cat-scratch
disease and bacillary angiomatosis. However, bartonellosis refers
exclusively to the disease caused by B. bacilliformis. The disease
is limited to a small area of the Andes Mountains in western South
America; nearly all cases have been in Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador.
A large outbreak involving thousands of people occurred in 1940–41,
but bartonellosis has since occurred sporadically. Control of
sandflies, the only known disease carrier (vector), has been
credited with managing the disease. |
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