Fungal, Tropical, and Animal-Borne Diseases

Question 1

What dx presents with joint pain in hot desert climate, tested with sputum culture and treated with fluconazole?

Answer 1

Coccidioidomycosis

Question 2

What dx presents very similarly to TB and originates from soil with bird and bat feces (caves, river valleys), is tested with sputum culture, and treated with amphotericin if serious?

Answer 2

Histoplasmosis

Question 3

What dx presents with lung, bone, skin, and prostate involvement and shows a broad budding yeast found on smear, treated with itraconazole?

Answer 3

Blastomyces

“Blast those broad buds”
BBB

Question 4

What dx presents with immunocompromised patients, esp diabetics in DKA, with sx of rapid dissection of nasal canals and eyes through to the brain, treated with amphotericin?

Answer 4

Mucormycosis

Question 5

Which dx presents in patients with immunocompromise and causes lung infiltrates and is diagnosed with serum galactomannan assay, B-D-glucan level, and PCR, and is treated with voriconazole, isavuconazole, or caspofungin?

Answer 5

Invasive aspergillosis

Question 6

Which dx presents with massive, watery diarrhea along with sunken eyes and loose skin, treated with hydration and doxycycline?

Answer 6

Cholera

Question 7

Which dx is a mosquito-borne illness that presents with fever, headache, fatigue, and hemolysis, is diagnosed with THICK smear and is treated with mefloquine or atovaquone/proguanil or chloroquine or primaquine?

Answer 7

Malaria

Question 8

What disease does Plasmodium falciparum sometimes carry?

Answer 8

Malaria

Question 9

Which anti-malarial should be avoided in patients with h/o psychiatric illness?

Answer 9

Mefloquine

Question 10

Which disease hails from Africa and is characterized by joint pain?

Answer 10

Chikengunya

Question 11

Which disease hails from Africa and causes bone pain, low WBC, and high transaminases?

Answer 11

Dengue

Question 12

Which disease hails from Africa and causes microcephaly in pregnancy?

Answer 12

Zika

Question 13

Which disease hails from Africa, is transmissable only by direct contact with body fluids from a person in whom sx are present, and causes high volume diarrhea, bleeding, and encephalitis, with 70% mortality?

Answer 13

Ebola

Question 14

What dx has recurrent episodes of fever and abdominal pain, elevated ESR, CRP, WBC, and fibrinogen, and is treated with colchicine?

Answer 14

Familial mediterranean fever

Question 15

What is the most commonly used anti-malarial for prophylaxis since there is so much resistance worldwide to chloroquine?

Answer 15

Mefloquine

Question 16

What are the few countries that are not resistant to chloroquine?

Answer 16

Iraq, turkey, mexico, some others

Question 17

What presents in 3 forms and is found in sheep, cattle, horses, and goats, and is treated with quinolone or doxycycline:?

1. Painless black eschar
2. Ulcer in GI tract
3. Widened mediastinum with hemorrhagic LAD and pleural effusion

Answer 17

Anthrax

Question 18

What dx is transmitted by ticks and causes hemolysis, is life-threatening in patients with splenectomy, and is diagnosed by blood smear and treated with azithromycin plus atovaquone?

Answer 18

Babesiosis

Question 19

What dx is transmitted by cats and produces large and tender regional lymph nodes, is diagnosed clinically or by serology, and can be treated with azithromycin?

Answer 19

Bartonellosis (cat-scratch disease)

Question 20

What dx presents with long term fever, hepatosplenomegaly, endocarditis, and lots of other stuff, and is due to exposure to unpasteurized milk or meat and is often found in returning war veterans, is diagnosed with blood, CSF, urine, or marrow culture, and treated with doxycycline and gentamicin?

Answer 20

Brucella

Question 21

What dx is from dogs and sheep, and spreads to liver, lung, and brain forming hydatid cysts, is diagnosed with imaging, and treated with oral albendazole and injection of alcohol into the cysts?

Answer 21

Echinococcus (don’t aspirate the cyst)

Question 22

What spirochete infex can cause muscle pain, CK elevation, and can cause the Jarisch-Herxheimer rx after treatment (treated with penicillin)?

Answer 22

Leptospirosis

Question 23

What protozoal infex is spread by sandflies and presents with either skin lesions or spleen/liver/marrow, is diagnosed visually or with aspirates, treated with amphotericin or miltefosine?

Answer 23

Leishmaniasis

Question 24

Which dx caused the bubonic plague and is due to rodent exposure in the American SW, is diagnosed by node aspirate culture, and treated with streptomycin?

Answer 24

Yersinia pestis

Question 25

Which dx is often transmitted by rabbits, muskrats, and prairie dogs, or tick bites, and presents with skin ulcers, unilateral glandular enlargement, rapidly fatal pneumonia, should not be cultured (bc can create dangerous spores) so is diagnosed with serology, and treated with streptomycin?

Answer 25

Tularemia