Ehrlichiosis -- ticks, dogs, and doxycycline

Article Abstract:

Doctors are learning more and more about the bacteria that cause ehrlichiosis. They all belong to the genus Ehrlichia and all are thought to be transmitted by ticks. Ehrlichia sennetsu was the first bacterium linked to human disease, causing an illness similar to mononucleosis. Ehrlichia canis usually infects dogs. A species closely related to one that infects horses causes a disease called human granulocytic ehrlichiosis. A 1999 report showed that Ehrlichia ewingii, which normally infects dogs, can also infect humans. Ehrlichiosis is hard to diagnose, but it can be fatal. Therefore, treatment with doxycycline is recommended.

Editorial, Diagnosis

---

Whither continuity of care?

Article Abstract:

The rise of hospitalists may erode continuity of care. Hospitalists are doctors employed by hospitals who take care of patients while they are in the hospital. This function used to be performed by the patient's own primary care physician. Now many primary care physicians limit themselves to seeing relatively healthy patients in their offices. An anecdotal account is presented of a woman who goes from the emergency department to the hospital, then to a rehabilitation facility, and then to a skilled nursing facility without ever seeing her primary care physician.

Analysis, Practice, Physicians (General practice), General practitioners, Continuum of care

---

Ehrlichia ewingii, a newly recognized agent of human ehrlichiosis

Article Abstract:

Doctors report four cases of human ehrlichiosis caused by Ehrlichia ewingii. Ehrlichiosis is a tick-borne disease that affects humans, dogs, horses, deer and rodents. So far, only four species of Ehrlicia have been found in humans: chaffeensis, sennetsu, canis and an unidentified species related to equi and phagocytophila. The polymerase chain reaction confirmed that the DNA found in white blood cells from these patients belonged to Ehrlichia ewingii, a species normally found in dogs. All four patients were treated with doxycycline and all recovered.

Case studies

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Early syphilis: relationship to sex, drugs, and changes in high-risk behavior from 1987-1990. The link between the use of crack cocaine and the sexually transmitted diseases of a clinic population: a comparison of adolescents with adults
• Abstracts: Maternal smoking and Down syndrome: the confounding effect of maternal age. Has smoking cessation ceased? Expected trends in the prevalence of smoking in the United States
• Abstracts: Medical management issues of patients on clozapine. Tales from the Death Certificate. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors: How Safe Are They?
• Abstracts: Biopsychological and Cognitive Differences in Children With Premature vs On-Time Adrenarche. Psychiatric Features of Children and Adolescents With Pseudoseizures
• Abstracts: Epidemiology of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Texas. Evaluation of old and new tests of heterogeneity in epidemiologic meta-analysis

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.