Bartonellosis is an
infectious disease produced by
bacteria of the
genus Bartonella [1].
Bartonella species cause diseases, such as
Carrion´s disease,
Trench fever, and
Cat scratch disease, and other recognized diseases, such as (
Bacillary Angiomatosis),
peliosis hepatis, chronic
bacteremia,
endocarditis, chronic
lymphadenopathy, and neurological disorders.
[2]The disease was named after a medical student Daniel Alcides Carrión of Cerro de Pasco, Peru. Carrion described the disease after being inoculated on his request by Doctor Evaristo M. Chávez, a close friend and coworker in Dos de Mayo National Hospital. Carrion kept a meticulous clinical history until the disease rendered him incapable of so doing. Carrion proved that "Oroya fever" and "Verruga Peruana" were two stages of the same disease, not two different ones as thought at the time.
Carrion was inoculated with the pus of the purple lesion from a patient (Carmen Paredes) in 1885. He developed the disease 3 weeks after the inoculation and died several weeks later. Bartonella bacilliformis is considered the most deadly bartonella to date, with a death rate of up to 90% during the acute phase. His sacrifice demonstrated the connection between the 2 phases of the disease. Subsequently, 23 subspecies of bartonella were discovered. His work did not result in a cure at that time, but his research started the process. Peru named October 5th as Peruvian Medicine day in his honor.
The causative bacterial agent of bartonellosis was discovered by the Peruvian microbiologist Alberto Barton in 1905, but his results were not published until 1909. Barton originally identified them as endoglobular structures, bacteria living inside red blood cells. Until 1993, the Bartonella genus contained only one species; there are now 23 identified species, all of them within family Bartonellaceae.[3]
