Carrion’s disease is also known as Bartonellosis. This disease is quite rare in human species. The agent that causes this disease is Bartonella Bacilliformis. This disease can sometimes manifest without any symptom, and may also present with symptoms. Some of the signs and symptoms of the disease are pleomorphic. The signs and symptoms of Carrion’s disease can be divided into two types. These are the acute phase and the chronic phase. Some of the presenting symptoms of Carrion’s disease include hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, jaundice, other types of infection, muscle aches, headaches, lymphadenopathies and so on. The chronic phase is also referred to as the eruptive phase or tissue phase. Patients develop a cutaneous rash, that is produced by a proliferation of endothelial cells. The most prevalent presentations of the chronic phase include verrugas, malaise, anorexia, lymphadenopathy, and organ enlargement. This disease can be diagnosed by initially taking the medical history of the patient, followed by taking the present complaints, including the signs and symptoms. The doctor would proceed to carry out laboratory tests on the patient such as Giemsa stain, blood culture, immunofluorescence and so on before making and confirming the diagnosis. This disease can be treated by administering medications. One of the most effective drugs used for Carrion’s disease is chloramphenicol. Other drugs used for the treatment of this disease include rifampin or macrolides. Multiple treatments are often required for the treatment of this disease, as it often presents with comorbid infections and conditions. Antibiotics are one of the effective ways of treating Carrion’s disease. An example of an antibiotic used is Chloramphenicol. Carrion’s disease usually exists as a comorbid infection. It does present with other infections. Salmonella infection is one of the closely associated one. This also gives room for opportunistic diseases. This happens because of the weakened immune system of the patients. Fluoroquinolones like ciprofloxacin are usually used together with B-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin for the treatment of children affected by the disease. Stem cell and exosomes are also potential ways of treating this disease.
What Are The Signs And Symptoms Of Carrion’s Disease?
As mentioned earlier, the signs and symptoms of Carrion’s disease can be classified into two phases. These are the acute and the chronic phase.
- Acute phase: This phase is also known as the hematic phase. The most common findings in this phase include fever, with a temperature of about 39 degrees. In addition to this, patients do present with a pale appearance, malaise, a painless enlargement of the organs such as the liver, lymph nodes, and the spleen. Patients also present with hemolytic anemia and immunosuppression. Patients that are not treated, or not well managed to have a fatality ratio of about 40%. However, this could get as high as 90% when the disease occurs with opportunistic infection. Salmonella infection is one of the most common infections that occur with Carrion’s disease. Some of the other symptoms that present in the acute phase include a headache, muscle ache, and abdominal pain. A connection has been suggested between Carrion’s disease and heart murmurs. Some of the signs and symptoms presented by children include anorexia, nausea, vomiting and so on. Majority of the mortality of the disease happens in the acute phase. The common cause of death in the acute phase is mostly due to infections that occur in the patients. This happens because of immunosuppression in the affected persons. Another factor that increases the development of a weakened immune system in children is malnutrition. Pregnant women who present with the acute phase, do have a have a spontaneous abortion. The rate of abortion has been reported to be up to 40%.
- Chronic phase: The phase is also known as the eruptive or tissue phase. Patients do present with a cutaneous rash, which is produced by the growth of endothelial cells. They are sometimes referred to as Peruvian warts. There are different types of Peruvian warts. There is the military, nodular and mular warts. The miliary warts are the most common. The chronic phase is the most prevalent phase. Although the mortality rate is very low.
What Is the Cause Of Carrion’s Disease?
Carrion’s disease is a disease that is caused by a microorganism. The infectious disease is produced by Bartonella bacilliformis
How Can This Disease Be Diagnosed?
Carrion’s disease can be diagnosed by taking a blood sample of the patient and running some laboratory tests on it. Some of the tests include Giemsa stain, blood agar culture, immunoblot, immunofluorescence, and PCR. The acute phase of this disease is diagnosed by examining the Giemsa stained blood smear. The causative organism of this disease can be isolated in a Columbia Blood agar culture. Other methods used in diagnosis include immunoblot and indirect immunofluorescence.
How Is Carrion’s Disease Currently Treated?
There are some cases of Carrion’s disease that requires medical or surgical procedures. However, antibiotics have been the most used and effective treatment of the disease. Chloramphenicol is one of the most commonly used medication for this disease. Carrion’s disease usually exists as a comorbid infection. It does present with other infections. Salmonella infection is one of the closely associated one. This also gives room for opportunistic diseases. This happens because of the weakened immune system of the patients. Fluoroquinolones like ciprofloxacin are usually used together with B-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin for the treatment of children affected by the disease. Either ciprofloxacin or chloramphenicol can be used by adult patients. The eruptive phase of the Carrion’s disease cannot be treated with chloramphenicol. Although other drugs such as azithromycin, erythromycin, and ciprofloxacin can also be used to treat the patients successfully. Lastly, rifampin and macrolides can also be used to treat the young and old patients.
Stem Cell Therapy And Carrion’s Disease
Stem cell therapy is also one of the ways of treating this disease. Stem cells can be extracted from the bone marrow of the patient, who has a high risk of an infection due to the activity of some organism. The stem cells are extracted, processed before they are intravenously given back to the patient to replace the impaired or damaged cells.
References
Frishman, W. (1998). Biologic markers as predictors of cardiovascular disease. The American Journal of Medicine, 104(6), pp.18S-27S.
Henderson, V. (1997). The epidemiology of estrogen replacement therapy and Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology, 48(Issue 5, Supplement 7), pp.27S-35S.
NAKANO, S. and YAMADA, H. (2009). Summary. Rinsho yakuri/Japanese Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 40(2), pp.27S-27S.
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