Bartonella henselae

Bartonellas are gram-negative, facultatively intracellular bacteria. They are stained purple by the Giemsa dye. The genus contains the pathogenic B. quintana, B. bacilliformis, and B. henselae, which is the cause of cat-scratch disease.

Disease
The first and oftentimes only sign is lymphadenopathy following a scratch or bite from a cat. The disease usually doesn’t require specific treatment. B. henselae can cause bacillary angiomatosis (the bacteria induce angiogenesis), skin lesions, bacterial hepatic peliosis. In homeless people it is often an etiological agent of lasting bacteremia, rarely the cause of endocarditis.

Bartonella is transmitted by blood-sucking arthropods, after infection they reproduce in mendothelial cells and in erythrocytes.

Diagnosis
It is difficult to cultivate this bacterium, and except clinical presentation, PCR or serology is used for diagnosing. It is treated by tetracyclines and aminoglycosides.

Summary video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUEGrqHuJeo

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