Yersinia Health Dictionary

A severe illness caused by the Gram negative rod, Yersinia pestis. The reservoirs for the infection are various species of rodent and the bacteria are transmitted through the bite of the rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis. Patients present with enlarged lymph glands (‘buboes’) often in the groin or armpit. Can become septicaemic or develop into a pneumo nia (‘Pneumonic Plague’) and spread by droplet. Also known in the past as “The Black Death”.... bubonic plague

In?ammation of the ileum – the lower part of the small INTESTINE. It may be caused by CROHN’S DISEASE, typhoid fever (see ENTERIC FEVER), TUBERCULOSIS or the bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica. Ileitis may also accompany ULCERATIVE COLITIS (see also INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE (IBD)).

Patients and their relatives can obtain help and guidance from the National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease.... ileitis

A serious infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium YERSINIA PESTIS. It mainly affects rodents but can be transmitted to humans by flea bites. There are 2 main types: bubonic and pneumonic plague. Bubonic plague is characterized by swollen lymph glands (called “buboes”). Symptoms usually start 2–5 days after infection, with fever, shivering, and severe headache. Soon, the smooth, red, intensely painful buboes appear, usually in the groin. There may be bleeding into the skin around the buboes, causing dark patches.Pneumonic plague affects the lungs and can spread from person to person in infected droplets expelled during coughing. Symptoms are severe coughing that produces a bloody, frothy sputum and laboured breathing. Without early treatment, death is almost inevitable.

A sample of fluid from a bubo, or a sputum sample, is taken to confirm the diagnosis.

Possible treatments include streptomycin and tetracycline drugs.... plague

The effect of the two ends of a bacillus staining while the centre of the rod remains unstained (eg in Yersinia pestis, the cause of Bubonic Plague) when stained with Giemsa stain.... bipolar staining

Bloody diarrhoea. The classical manifestations are fever, crampy abdominal pain, tenesmus with mucous bloody stool. All of the enteropathogens that have the facility to invade or destroy the intestinal mucosa, especiallythe colonic mucosa, will have clinical presentation of dysentery. The common organisms are Shigella spp, Salmonella spp, Campylobacter jejuni, Yersinia enterocolitica, Enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (E.I.E.C.), Enterohaemorrhagic Esch. Coli (E.H.E.C.) Entamoeba histolytica.... dysentery

An EPIDEMIC that has spread so widely that very many people in di?erent countries are affected. Examples include the Black Death – the epidemic PLAGUE, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, that devastated European populations in the Middle Ages, killing more than a third of the people; and the INFLUENZA pandemic of 1919–20 that killed more people than did World War I. AIDS/HIV is currently pandemic.... pandemic

Diarrhoea that begins acutely but lasts more than 21 days. The usual enteropathogens are Shigella spp., Salmonella spp., Campylobacter jejuni, Yersinia enterocolitica, Capillaria philippinensis, Cryptosporidium. Giardia can also be a cause.... persistent chronic diarrhoea