Author: Brian Holtry

Originally thought to be fungi due to their hyphae-like appearance, they are now recognized as bacteria based on their cell wall components, reproduction by fission without sporulation or budding, inhibition by antibacterial agents, and molecular phylogenetic analysis. The actinomycete chromosomes contain a high content of guanosine and cytosine.

Disease occurs when mechanical insult disrupts the mucosal barrier or organisms gain access to privileged sites. For example, actinomycosis commonly occurs after dental procedures, trauma, surgery, or aspiration. Actinomyces israelii causes the majority of human disease owing to this genus, but other species, including Actinomyces naeslundii, Actinomyces viscosus, Actinomyces enksonii, Actinomyces odontolyticus, and Actinomyces meyeri have also been implicated. Actinomycosis is threefold more common in men than women.

Nocardia spp. are strictly aerobic, ubiquitous soil-dwelling organisms that are largely responsible for the decomposition of organic plant material. Infection usually occurs via inhalation of these organisms in airborne dust particles, leading to pulmonary disease.

The increasingly relative importance of the atypical mycobacteria, many of which are ubiquitous in the environment, was recognized with the decline in tuberculous disease. Generally, atypical mycobacteria are unusual causes of disease in patients who are immunocompetent but can in immunocompromised hosts such as AIDS and cancer patients.

Although not a common problem in the United States, it is in other parts of the world. With the advent of effective antimicrobial agents, the number of cases of leprosy worldwide has fallen from 12 million in 1982 to 6 million in 1991. It remains a significant problem, however, because the incidence of new cases has not yet declined, and much of the affected population lives in areas where effective medical treatment is difficult to obtain.

Mavium is the most common atypical mycobacterium to cause disease in humans. In immunocompetent patients, M avium can cause pulmonary disease (Box 1). It is the most common pulmonary pathogen of all the atypical mycobacteria. There are several risk factors for pulmonary M avium infection besides AIDS.

Approximately one-third of the world’s population is infected with M tuberculosis, according to World Health Organization estimates, resulting in 2.9 million annual deaths. In the United States, tuberculosis is on the rise, after several decades of steady decline.

Symptoms of infection consist of fatigue, weight loss, fever, night sweats, and a productive cough. Most children who are infected with TB usually have no symptoms.

Brucellosis (also called undulant fever, Mediterranean fever, Malta fever) is an infection that causes abortion in domestic animals. It is caused by one of six species of Brucella coccobacilli. It may occasionally be transmitted to humans, in whom the disease could be acute or chronic with ongoing fever and constitutional symptoms without localized findings.

Pasteurella multocida has been recovered from cultures of specimens from the nasopharynx and the gastrointestinal tract of a large number of asymptomatic wild and domestic animals. The highest carriage rates occur in cats (50%-90%), dogs or swine (50%), and rats (15%). Infections are usually preceded by a cat or dog bite or scratch on an extremity.