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The Brazilian Journal of Infectious... 2024Chlamydia psittaci ‒ related community-acquired pneumonia associated to acute myocarditis was diagnosed in a young man with no medical history, and a professional...
Chlamydia psittaci ‒ related community-acquired pneumonia associated to acute myocarditis was diagnosed in a young man with no medical history, and a professional exposition to birds. The diagnosis was confirmed with positive specific polymerase chain reaction in bronchoalveolar lavage. The patient was treated with spiramycin for two weeks with anti-inflammatory treatment for myocarditis for three months. Clinical and biological improvement was rapidly observed followed by normalization of electrocardiogram and chest CT scan. No relapse was reported for over a two-year follow-up.
Topics: Humans; Male; Myocarditis; Psittacosis; Chlamydophila psittaci; Adult; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Community-Acquired Infections; Acute Disease; Young Adult
PubMed: 38679059
DOI: 10.1016/j.bjid.2024.103739 -
PloS One 2022Psittacosis pneumonia is a community-acquired pneumonia caused by Chlamydia psittaci. It is usually under-diagnosed due to its atypical clinical presentation and lack of...
BACKGROUND
Psittacosis pneumonia is a community-acquired pneumonia caused by Chlamydia psittaci. It is usually under-diagnosed due to its atypical clinical presentation and lack of routine laboratory tests.
METHODS
To better understand the clinical features, 52 patients diagnosed with psittacosis pneumonia by metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) were enrolled in this study. The clinical, radiological and pathological characteristics were retrospectively analyzed.
RESULTS
The onset of psittacosis pneumonia in this study occurred all year round, with a peak from December to January. Most of the patients were 51-80 years old. About 65.38% of patients had a history of exposure to poultry or parrots. Abnormalities of multiple clinical signals were detected in these patients. Elevated levels of neutrophil ratio, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and procalcitonin were detected in most patients. Radiological evidence revealed air-space consolidation or ground-glass opacities in lungs of all patients, which is the typical feature of psittacosis pneumonia. In addition, hyperemia, swelling of bronchial mucosa, and bronchial patency were detected by bronchoscopy in all patients, and bronchial sub-mucosal edema, inflammatory cells infiltration and alveolar epithelial hyperplasia were identified in the bronchial mucosa and alveolar tissue. Beta-lactam antibiotics were administered for empirical treatment before mNGS in 17 patients but showed no improvement. The treatment was switched to doxycycline or moxifloxacin immediately since psittacosis pneumonia were suspected and confirmed by mNGS detection (within 48 hours). After receiving adjustment of treatment, 94.23% (49/52) of patients were cured successfully.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, mNGS may be a promising approach for clinical diagnosis of psittacosis. For patients with a history of exposure to birds, hyperpyrexia, nonproductive cough, multiple elevated inflammatory markers, and air-space consolidation in lung, psittacosis pneumonia should be considered, especially when beta-lactam antibiotics showed limited efficacy.
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Chlamydial Pneumonia; Chlamydophila psittaci; Humans; Hyperplasia; Middle Aged; Pneumonia; Psittacosis; Retrospective Studies; beta-Lactams
PubMed: 35816485
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270896 -
British Medical Journal (Clinical... Sep 1984
Topics: Adult; Animals; Birds; Child; Disease Vectors; Humans; Middle Aged; Psittacosis
PubMed: 6432165
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.289.6444.510 -
Epidemiology and Infection Feb 2018Psittacosis (infection with Chlamydia psittaci) can have diverse presentations in humans, ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe systemic disease. Awareness of...
Psittacosis (infection with Chlamydia psittaci) can have diverse presentations in humans, ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe systemic disease. Awareness of psittacosis and its presentations are low among clinicians and the general public. Therefore, underdiagnosis and thereby underestimation of the incidence and public health importance of psittacosis is very likely. We used the methodology developed for the Burden of communicable diseases in Europe toolkit of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, to construct a model to estimate disease burden in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to psittacosis. Using this model, we estimated the disease burden caused by psittacosis in the Netherlands to have been 222 DALY per year (95% CI 172-280) over the period 2012-2014. This is comparable with the amount of DALYs estimated to be due to rubella or shigellosis in the same period in the Netherlands. Our results highlight the public health importance of psittacosis and identify evidence gaps pertaining to the clinical presentations and prognosis of this disease.
Topics: Chlamydophila psittaci; Cost of Illness; Humans; Incidence; Models, Theoretical; Netherlands; Psittacosis; Quality-Adjusted Life Years
PubMed: 29361998
DOI: 10.1017/S0950268817003065 -
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2023is the pathogen of psittacosis and infects a wide range of birds and even humans. Human infection occurs most commonly in those with a history of contact with birds or...
is the pathogen of psittacosis and infects a wide range of birds and even humans. Human infection occurs most commonly in those with a history of contact with birds or poultry. We describe a case of psittacosis in a human immunodeficiency virus infected patient in Zhejiang Province for the first time. infection was confirmed by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Real-Time PCR. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the sequences from the patient's samples clustered with genotype A in the same branch. Our study highlights the possibility of diagnosing psittacosis in patients with a chronic disease such as HIV-infected patients, and should increase awareness and surveillance of psittacosis in China.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Psittacosis; Chlamydophila psittaci; Phylogeny; HIV Infections; Birds; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
PubMed: 37260699
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1185803 -
Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine Feb 2019Customs Service is a financial authority responsible for controlling the flow of importation and exportation goods in each country and for collecting the relevant taxes.... (Review)
Review
Customs Service is a financial authority responsible for controlling the flow of importation and exportation goods in each country and for collecting the relevant taxes. Customs officers are considered as 'high-demand' and 'high-responsibility' governmental officials, which constitute members of multidisciplinary teams at the local, as well as international level and collaborate with different authorities, including medical officers. Despite limited data in the medical literature, customs officers are considered as a 'high-risk' occupational group for infections and environmental health risk. During the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and influenza A/H1N1 pandemic outbreaks in 2003 and 2009, respectively, customs officers had a fundamental front-line input in the establishment of the recommended at that time border measures. In Belgium in 1994, a psittacosis outbreak occurred in customs officers following their exposure to illegally imported parakeets. During the recent increased immigration proceedings, customs officers have been involved in detaining unauthorized populations for various infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, varicella and measles. Occupational risk for customs officers also includes noise-induced hearing loss, exposure to diesel engine emission and stored tobacco and occupational stress due to their increased time-schedule and decision-making duties. In this review, we discuss customs officers' occupational risk towards environmental and infectious factors, including viral infections, tuberculosis and psittacosis.
PubMed: 30679987
DOI: 10.3892/etm.2018.7077 -
Microbiology Spectrum Aug 2022Psittacosis is an uncommon disease which mainly presents as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We aim to apply metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) as a...
Psittacosis is an uncommon disease which mainly presents as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We aim to apply metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) as a promising tool in the diagnosis of psittacosis pneumonia and to describe its clinical spectrum to provide physicians with a better understanding and recognition of this disease. Thirteen cases of psittacosis pneumonia were diagnosed by using mNGS. A retrospective analysis of the data on clinical manifestations, laboratory data, computed tomography (CT) images, new diagnosis tools, treatments, and outcomes was summarized. These patients had common symptoms of fever and weakness; some had poor appetite, cough, myalgia, and headache. Ten patients developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), among which six patients were severe pneumonia cases and needed ventilator therapy. Most patients got psittacosis pneumonia during the cold season. Ten cases were sporadic, but three were family clustering. All of the 13 patients were traced to an exposure history to birds, cat, or poultry, among which 2 only touched the innards of killed poultry before cooking, which may be an atypical exposure history not been reported before, to our knowledge. Most patients had various degrees of liver dysfunction. Air-space consolidations, along with ground-glass opacities and reticular shadows, were detected on chest CT scan. mNGS takes 48 to 72 h to provide results and helps to diagnose psittacosis. After being diagnosed by mNGS, with effective medicines, all patients finally had complete recoveries. The use of mNGS can improve the diagnostic rate of psittacosis pneumonia and shorten the course of disease control. Psittacosis pneumonia is easily underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed. In this study, we use mNGS in the diagnosis of psittacosis pneumonia. We found this disease is prone in the cold season, and touching the innards of killed poultry during cooking may be an atypical exposure history which has not been reported before to our knowledge. There are sporadic cases and family outbreak cases as well. Except for typical symptoms of fever and weakness, headache may be the main and only symptom in some patients. The rate of severe pneumonia is high among inpatients with psittacosis pneumonia, and the incidence of hepatic involvements is also high. Psittacosis pneumonia can be cured if the diagnosis is accurate and in time, even if it is severe pneumonia on admission. Some problems worthy of our attention about psittacosis pneumonia were put forward, such as its sick season, special exposure history, the rate of severe disease, and the high cure rate. mNGS can quickly and objectively detect more rare pathogenic microorganisms in clinical specimens without the need for specific amplification and has an advantage in the diagnosis of rare pathogenic bacteria in difficult cases such as psittacosis pneumonia. The use of mNGS can improve the accuracy and reduce the delay in the diagnosis of psittacosis, which shortens the course of disease control.
Topics: Chlamydophila psittaci; Headache; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Humans; Pneumonia; Psittacosis; Retrospective Studies
PubMed: 35938720
DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02384-21 -
New South Wales Public Health Bulletin Jan 2001
PubMed: 12105448
DOI: 10.1071/nb01008 -
Annals of Clinical Microbiology and... Sep 2023Chlamydia psittaci (C. psittaci) causes parrot fever in humans. Development of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) enables the identification of C. psittaci. (Observational Study)
Observational Study
Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of psittacosis among cases with complicated or atypical pulmonary infection using metagenomic next-generation sequencing: a multi-center observational study in China.
BACKGROUND
Chlamydia psittaci (C. psittaci) causes parrot fever in humans. Development of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) enables the identification of C. psittaci.
METHODS
This study aimed to determine the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of parrot fever cases in China. A multi-center observational study was conducted in 44 tertiary and secondary hospitals across 14 provinces and municipalities between April 2019 and October 2021.
RESULTS
A total of 4545 patients with complicated or atypical pulmonary infection were included in the study, among which the prevalence of C. psittaci was determined to be 2.1% using mNGS. The prevalence of C. psittaci was further determined across demographic groups and types of specimens. It was significantly higher in patients with senior age (2.6% in those > 50 years), winter-spring (3.6%; particularly in December, January, and February), and southwestern (3.4%) and central and southern China (2.7%) (each P < 0.001). Moreover, the prevalence was the highest in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) (2.9%), compared with sputum (1.1%) and peripheral blood specimens (0.9%). Additionally, co-infection of principal microorganisms was compared. Certain microorganisms were more likely to co-infect in parrot fever cases, such as Candida albicans in BALF (26.7%) and peripheral blood (6.3%), compared with non-parrot fever cases (19.7% and 1.3%); however, they did not significantly differ (each P > 0.05).
CONCLUSION
Parrot fever remains low in patients with complicated or atypical pulmonary infection. It is likely to occur in winter-spring and southwestern region in China. BALF may be the optimal specimen in the application of mNGS. Co-infection of multiple microorganisms should be further considered.
Topics: Humans; Middle Aged; Psittacosis; Coinfection; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Candida albicans; China; Pneumonia
PubMed: 37679777
DOI: 10.1186/s12941-023-00631-w -
BMC Genomics May 2023Chlamydia (C.) psittaci, the causative agent of avian chlamydiosis and human psittacosis, is a genetically heterogeneous species. Its broad host range includes parrots...
BACKGROUND
Chlamydia (C.) psittaci, the causative agent of avian chlamydiosis and human psittacosis, is a genetically heterogeneous species. Its broad host range includes parrots and many other birds, but occasionally also humans (via zoonotic transmission), ruminants, horses, swine and rodents. To assess whether there are genetic markers associated with host tropism we comparatively analyzed whole-genome sequences of 61 C. psittaci strains, 47 of which carrying a 7.6-kbp plasmid.
RESULTS
Following clean-up, reassembly and polishing of poorly assembled genomes from public databases, phylogenetic analyses using C. psittaci whole-genome sequence alignment revealed four major clades within this species. Clade 1 represents the most recent lineage comprising 40/61 strains and contains 9/10 of the psittacine strains, including type strain 6BC, and 10/13 of human isolates. Strains from different non-psittacine hosts clustered in Clades 2- 4. We found that clade membership correlates with typing schemes based on SNP types, ompA genotypes, multilocus sequence types as well as plasticity zone (PZ) structure and host preference. Genome analysis also revealed that i) sequence variation in the major outer membrane porin MOMP can result in 3D structural changes of immunogenic domains, ii) past host change of Clade 3 and 4 strains could be associated with loss of MAC/perforin in the PZ, rather than the large cytotoxin, iii) the distinct phylogeny of atypical strains (Clades 3 and 4) is also reflected in their repertoire of inclusion proteins (Inc family) and polymorphic membrane proteins (Pmps).
CONCLUSIONS
Our study identified a number of genomic features that can be correlated with the phylogeny and host preference of C. psittaci strains. Our data show that intra-species genomic divergence is associated with past host change and includes deletions in the plasticity zone, structural variations in immunogenic domains and distinct repertoires of virulence factors.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Horses; Swine; Chlamydophila psittaci; Psittacosis; Phylogeny; Chlamydia; Birds; Genomics
PubMed: 37248517
DOI: 10.1186/s12864-023-09370-w