Where all your ID needs are met! Sort of.
Literature review on any “old timey” organism can be kind of a pain since I am convinced microbiologists get drunk every so often to reclassify clinically relevant organisms. This is the case for Bartonella. Originally described as bartonia, which is an erythrocyte-adherent organism similar to organisms of the genus of Rochalimacae, including Rickettsia quintana, was
Originally described as a pathogen in 1923, Corynebacterium equi was isolated from the lungs of ten foals (aka a young horse) who had pneumonia (1). Its name was later changed to rhodococcus (aka red coccus), and can be mistaken for mycobacterium spp due to its sometimes acid-fast appearance (2). It is known to infect horses,
Coccidioides (from now on, called Cocci) is an endemic fungi that exists in two forms, yeast and mold, that is endemic to the southeastern United States (1). It is related to both Histoplasma and Blastomyces with two species known to infect humans. C. immitis and C. posadasii. Arthroconidia can be transported in soil or fomites,
Am I going there? Am I going to look into a topic that one of my attendings literally wrote the guidelines for? I guess I am. Cryptococcus is a yeast that is typically found everywhere there is bat/pigeon droppings or contaminated soil, as well as in certain tree species throughout the world. The most common
What is this? I am writing about a topic related to transplant infectious diseases? Something has to be going on! I had originally intended to write about CMV serostatus and risk of organ rejection in SOT patients, but that was a more difficult topic to tackle (just like that HTLV-1 post; yeah that one is
Ear yeast! That is the translation of Candida auris. It was discovered by isolation from an ear infection in an elderly patient in Japan in 2009 and since then it has been isolated in places such as India, southeast Asia and several parts of south America (1-4): One of the defining characteristics is its resistance
Infective endocarditis is a rare enough disease in and of itself that many folks won’t see much of in their lifetimes, though the rise in IV drug abuse means this may not be the case in the future. Staphylococcus aureus and streptococci, as well as enterococci, tend to be the most common organisms associated with
When I say bat poop, caves, and Indiana, the answer is Histoplasmosis. In general, most people will not get disease even when inhaling any conidia, however those who have decreased cellular immunity (i.e. solid organ transplant and HIV) are at risk of pulmonary or disseminated disease. One of the difficult issues in those patients is
Last week I talked about invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in influenza and COVID patients. This is not the first time I have talked about this topic. I have mentioned how the halo sign is not terribly specific for IPA, especially in hematological patients and the testing characteristics of galactomannan. I have also spoken about the other
I’ve been reading quite a bit about antifungals lately and one of the things I realized is the many formulations of amphotericin. Actually, the realization I had was I didn’t know the differences between them. It is a polyene antifungal that has broad spectrum antifungal activity (including Leshmania spp) but it is limited by its
Dr. Germophile 