Chapter 18: Haemophilus, Bordetella, Brucella, and Francisella

Chapter 18: Haemophilus, Bordetella, Brucella, and Francisella

A 68-year-old woman was seen in the clinic because she had felt feverish and had been experiencing increasing pain and swelling in her left knee during the past 3 weeks. Four years earlier, a prosthetic joint had been placed in her left knee. On examination, the knee was swollen, and fluid could be detected. An aspirate of the fluid was obtained. There were 15,000 polymorphonuclear cells/mL in the fluid. No organisms were seen on Gram stain. A routine culture was done. On the fourth day of incubation, colorless colonies smaller than 1 mm in diameter were seen on the blood and chocolate agar plates. The organism was a tiny gram-negative coccobacillus that was catalase positive and oxidase positive. A urea slant was inoculated and was positive for urease activity after overnight incubation. The patient was probably infected with which of the following microorganisms?

(A) Haemophilus influenzae

(B) Haemophilus ducreyi

(C) Francisella tularensis

(D) Brucella species

(E) Staphylococcus aureus

A 68-year-old woman was seen in the clinic because she had felt feverish and had been experiencing increasing pain and swelling in her left knee during the past 3 weeks. Four years earlier, a prosthetic joint had been placed in her left knee. On examination, the knee was swollen, and fluid could be detected. An aspirate of the fluid was obtained. There were 15,000 polymorphonuclear cells/mL in the fluid. No organisms were seen on Gram stain. A routine culture was done. On the fourth day of incubation, colorless colonies smaller than 1 mm in diameter were seen on the blood and chocolate agar plates. The organism was a tiny gram-negative coccobacillus that was catalase positive and oxidase positive. A urea slant was inoculated and was positive for urease activity after overnight incubation.

After the culture turned positive, additional history was obtained. Approximately 4 weeks before the onset of her knee pain, the patient had visited relatives in Israel and traveled to other countries in the Mediterranean area. She had a particular fondness for one food product that was the probable vehicle for her infection. The product most likely was

(A) Bananas

(B) Unpasteurized goat’s cheese

(C) Rare hamburger

(D) Fresh orange juice

(E) Green tea

A 55-year-old game warden in Vermont found a dead muskrat on the bank of a stream. He picked up the animal, thinking it might have been illegally trapped or ...