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Here is a new disease from Promedmail.org ----------- [1] Date: Mon 4 Jul 2005 From: Alfonso Rodriguez Source: Yahoo News Australia & New Zealand [edited] Outbreak of rare bacterial infection hits students in South Korea ----------------------------------------------- More than 140 South Korean students have been infected in an outbreak of a rare bacterial disease in June 2005, the nation's state-run disease agency said on Mon 4 Jul 2005. According to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), a total of 142 school students in the city of Guri, located in the very east of Seoul, were infected with _Arcanobacterium haemolyticum_ starting on 20 May 2005. The non-lethal pathogen can cause tonsillitis, chronic skin ulcers and other illnesses and is known to affect animals as well as humans. "The infection of 142 students was discovered when the KCDC was conducting epidemiological tests on 10 patients at a Guri hospital suffering from unknown causes," said an official from the center. The KCDC said that it has confirmed the infection by _A. haemolyticum_ from samples taken from 8 patients. It is the 1st reported case of a mass infection by the bacteria in South Korea. ============================================================ -- ProMED-mail ****** [2] Date: Tue 5 Jul 2005 From: ProMED-mail Source: JoongAng Daily, Korea [edited] Tough strain of bacteria found in Gyeonggi kids ----------------------------------------------- A strong, antibiotics-resistant strain of bacteria [see below - Mod. LL] has been spreading in the outskirts of Seoul among children and teenagers with summer colds. The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the bacteria, known as _Arcanobacterium haemolyticum_, was found in more than 140 students with cold symptoms in Guri, Gyeonggi province. _Arcanobacterium haemolyticum_ is resistant to antibiotics, the center said. Health authorities have said the bacteria could be dangerous to people with compromised immune systems, who could experience liver damage and falling blood pressure. The center received information last month [June 2005] about 10 children hospitalized for an unidentified illness in Guri. While investigating, health authorities came across more than 100 elementary, middle and high school students with similar symptoms. Most students reported symptoms similar to those associated with scarlet fever, including fevers and rashes. In severe cases, students' blood pressure dropped, and doctors say their livers could have been damaged. "Of the patients, 90.8 percent are students at the same school in Guri," said Park Gi-dong, director general of the center. "The disease is thought to have spread through dormitories and classrooms where the students spend time together. The virus could have already spread throughout the country." [Byline: Kim Chung-soo] ============================================================ -- ProMED-mail [Initially named _Corynebacterium haemolyticum_, the bacterium now termed _Arcanobacterium haemolyticum_ was 1st described in 1946 as the pathogenic agent causing pharyngitis and cutaneous infections among US servicemen and indigenous peoples of the South Pacific in 1946. As a result of its close resemblance to _Corynebacterium pyogenes_, some investigators believed the bacterium to be a mutant of this species and appended a subspecies name, _C. pyogenes subsp. hominis_. Based on its biochemical and nucleic acid characteristics, the bacterium was renamed and reclassified as the 1st member of the genus _Arcanobacterium_, which means secretive bacteria, in 1982. Primarily causing an exudative pharyngitis with a rash that may look like scarlet fever, the spectrum of diseases caused by _A. haemolyticum_ has been expanded to include invasive infections, including sepsis and osteomyelitis. Epidemiologically, _A. haemolyticum_ is likely spread through an unknown route by human contact with people who are infected. The chronic carrier state appears to be rare. The pathophysiology of the rash is unknown; however, it is thought that the rash is caused by a bacterial exotoxin. Osterlund (Are penicillin treatment failures in _Arcanobacterium haemolyticum_ pharyngotonsillitis caused by intracellularly residing bacteria? Scand J Infect Dis. 1995; 27:131-34) found that, despite being fully sensitive to penicillin in vitro, penicillin treatment failures of _A. haemolyticum_ were frequent. The ability of _A. haemolyticum_ to survive intracellularly for 4 days, thus creating intracellular reservoirs of bacteria, might explain this dichotomy. Osterlund also showed that erythromycin, an antibiotic known to penetrate well intracellularly, efficiently killed these bacteria. - Mod.LL] ============================================================ [see also: 1997 ---- Rhodococcus equi & Arcanobacterium haemolyticum 19970929.2055] .......................ll/msp/lm *##########################################################*