B Illness Details
Bartonellosis
What is it?
Bartonellosis is a rare infectious disease found only in certain regions of South America.
Symptoms
Bartonellosis is usually characterized by two distinctive stages: a sudden (acute), potentially life-threatening illness associated with high fever and decreased levels of circulating red blood cells (i.e., hemolytic anemia) and a chronic, benign skin (cutaneous) eruption consisting of raised, reddish-purple nodules.
Transmission
Transmitted by sandflies
Additional Information
Brucellosis
What is it?
An infectious disease that affects livestock and may be transmitted to humans. It is rare in the U.S. The disorder is cause by one of four different species of bacteria that belong to the genus Brucella. May be confined to a certain area of the body or have serious widespread complications that affect various organ systems of the body, including the central nervous system.
Symptoms
Fever, muscle pain, headache, loss of appetite, profuse sweating, and physical weakness.
Transmission
By eating uncooked meat or by being expsed to butchered meat that is infected.
Additional Information
BSE ("Mad Cow disease") and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD)
What is it?
"Mad Cow Disease" actually refers to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease in cattle which is related to a disease in humans called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD). Both disorders are fatal brain diseases caused by a prion - a protein particle that lacks nucleic acid and is believed to be the cause of various infectious diseases of the nervous system. It is believed that the agent that causes human deaths from nvCJD is the same agent that causes outbreaks of BSE in cattle.
Symptoms
Rapid, progressive dementia (deterioration of mental functions) as well as associated neuromuscular disturbances.
Transmission
This condition may be transmitted to humans, where it is referred to as variant or new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome. The most likely cause of vCJD is exposure to the BSE agent, most plausibly due to dietary contamination by affected bovine central nervous system tissue.
Additional Information
