Bartonella rochalimae

Taxobox
color = lightgrey
name = "Bartonella rochalimae" "Transmission electron microscopy".cite journal |author=Eremeeva ME, Gerns HL, Lydy SL, "et al" |title=Bacteremia, fever, and splenomegaly caused by a newly recognized bartonella species |journal=N. Engl. J. Med. |volume=356 |issue=23 |pages=2381–7 |year=2007 |month=Jun |pmid=17554119 |doi=10.1056/NEJMoa065987 |url=]
regnum = Bacteria
phylum = Proteobacteria
classis = Alpha Proteobacteria
ordo = Rhizobiales
familia = Bartonellaceae
genus = "Bartonella"
species = "B. rochalimae"
binomial = "Bartonella rochalimae"
binomial_authority = Eremeeva "et al.", 2007

"Bartonella rochalimae" is a recently discovered strain of Gram-negative bacteria in the "Bartonella" genus, isolated by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), Massachusetts General Hospital, and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.cite news
url=http://pub.ucsf.edu/newsservices/releases/200706061/|title=New bacterium discovered — related to cause of trench fever |accessdate=2007-06-07|date=2007-06-06|last=Ravven|first=Wallace|publisher=University of California, San Francisco] The bacterium is a close relative of "Bartonella quintana", the microbe which caused trench fever in thousands of soldiers during World War I.cite news
url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070607/sc_afp/ushealthbacteria|title=US scientists discover new, potentially deadly bacteria |accessdate=2007-06-07|date=2007-06-07|last=|first=|publisher=Agence France-Presse] Named after Brazilian scientist Henrique da Rocha Lima,cite news
url=http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/GeneralInfectiousDisease/tb/5886|title=Mystery Fever Leads to New Pathogen From Peru |accessdate=2007-06-07|date=2007-06-07|last=Smith|first=Michael|publisher=MedPage Today] "B. rochalimae" is also closely related to "Bartonella henselae", a bacterium identified in the mid-1990s during the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco as the cause of Cat scratch fever, which still infects more than 24,000 people in the United States each year.cite news
url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/07/BAGUFQA9R716.DTL|title=Peru trekker's mystery bug is new to science|accessdate=2007-06-07|date=2007-06-07|last=Russell|first=Sabin|publisher="San Francisco Chronicle"]

Scientists discovered the bacterium in a 43-year-old American woman who had traveled to Peru for three weeks. She suffered from possibly life-threatening anemia, an enlarged spleen, a 102 degree Fahrenheit (39 degree Celsius) fever, and insomnia two weeks after returning to the United States,cite news|title=New, Possibly Deadly Bacteria Discovered |url=http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/8/101229.shtml?s=he|accessdate=2007-06-08
date=2007-06-08|last=Hubbard|first=Sylvia|publisher=NewsMax.com] symptoms akin to those of typhoid fever and malaria. The patient's sickness was first attributed to "Bartonella bacilliformis", a known related species with a similar appearance under a microscope that is spread by sand flies and infects 10% of the human population in some regions of Peru with Oroya fever. Antibiotic treatment based on this diagnosis rapidly cured her infection, but further investigation proved the bacteria were of a formerly unknown species. It is possible that other cases diagnosed as Oroya fever result from this species.

The findings were published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" on June 7, 2007. According to the senior author of the paper, Jane Koehler, professor of infectious diseases at UCSF, the new discovery is the sixth identified "Bartonella" species that can infect humans.

References