WEEK 17: SPIROCHETES Flashcards
- Helical-shaped, motile, unicellular bacteria
- 0.1- to 3.0-μm wide by 5- to 20-μm long
- Exhibit various types of motion in liquid media
- Free-living or survive in association with animal or human hosts
Spirochetes
Syphilis
Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum
- Relapsing fever
- Lyme disease
Borrelia
Leptospirosis
Leptospira
Rat-bite fever
Spirillum minor
- Obligate aerobic helical rods 0.1-μm by 5- to 15-μm long that are tightly coiled, thin, and flexible.
- Leptospirosis: L. interrogans
- 20 serovars
- Most common
- Icterohaemorrhagiae, Australis, and Canicola
Virulence factors:
* Unknown but may include
* Reduced phagocytosis
* Soluble hemolysin
* Endotoxin
Leptospires
- Organisms in mud or water enter through breaks in the skin or intact mucosa.
Symptoms:
* Initial phase
* Fever, headache, malaise, and severe myalgia
* Conjunctival suffusion seen in less than half
* Can involve hepatic, renal, and central nervous systems
* Renal lesions are interstitial nephritis with glomerular swelling and hyperplasia.
* Illness lasts from less than 1 week to 3 weeks.
Leptospires
- Late manifestations caused by host immunologic response to infection.
- Weil’s disease: severe systemic disease
- Jaundice, acute renal failure, hepatic failure, intravascular disease
- Can be fatal
Leptospires
Organism that causes Weil’s disease.
Leptospires
This organism is susceptible to:
- Streptomycin
- Tetracycline
- Doxycycline
- Penicillin
- Some limited effectiveness if used early (before fourth day of illness)
Leptospires
- Helical bacteria 0.2 to 0.5 μm by 3 to 20 μm in length
- Spirals vary between 3 to 10 per organism
- Less tightly coiled than leptospires
Borrelia spp.
- Pediculus humanus louse-borne infection
- Epidemic relapsing fever
- Transmission by crushing or scratching lice into skin
B. recurrentis and B. duttonii
- Tick-borne infection: Ornithodoros ticks
- Endemic relapsing fever
- Transmitted by saliva during bite
B. hermsii (borreliae)
Symptoms:
- Incubation period is 2 to 15 days.
- High fever (104°F) with shaking chills
- Periods of 3 to 7 days
- Delirium
- Severe muscle aches and pain in bones and joints
- Followed by remission and subsequent repeat of symptoms
- Sometimes hepatosplenomegaly and jaundice
- Neurologic symptoms
- Lymphocytic meningitis and facial palsy
- Rarely fatal
Relapsing Fever
Drug of choice for relapsing fever.
Tetracyclines