Prevalence, Distribution, and Development of an Ecological Niche Model of Dermacentor variabilis Ticks Positive for Rickettsia montanensis.

Rickettsia montanensis has long been considered a nonpathogenic member of the spotted fever group rickettsiae. However, the infection potential of R. montanensis is being revisited in light of its recent association with a case of human infection in the United States and the possibility that additional cases may have been misdiagnosed as Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

The epidemiology of travelers' diarrhea in Incirlik, Turkey: a region with a predominance of heat-stabile toxin producing enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli.

This study evaluated travelers' diarrhea among US military personnel on short-term deployment to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, from June through September 2002. Upon reporting for care for travelers' diarrhea, subjects were enrolled into the study and completed a series of questionnaires and provided stool specimens for pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Fifty-three percent of the 202 participating subjects had a pathogen isolated from their stool.

Murine typhus and febrile illness, Nepal.

Murine typhus was diagnosed by PCR in 50 (7%) of 756 adults with febrile illness seeking treatment at Patan Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Of patients with murine typhus, 64% were women, 86% were residents of Kathmandu, and 90% were unwell during the winter. No characteristics clearly distinguished typhus patients from those with blood culture-positive enteric fever.

Validation of a Rickettsia prowazekii-specific quantitative real-time PCR cassette and DNA extraction protocols using experimentally infected lice.

The presence of R. prowazekii in lice using R. prowazekii-specific qPCR cassettes showed the changes of the rickettsial burden in the lice post-infection.

Sensitivity and specificity of various tests for the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori in Egyptian children.

Objectives: Many noninvasive methods (using breath, blood, and stool samples) are available to diagnose Helicobacter pylori. However, because the noninvasive tests are proxy measures of the infection, they need validation before use. Factors that may affect test validity include patient age, gender, and geographic location.

Development of quantitative real-time PCR assays to detect Rickettsia typhi and Rickettsia felis, the causative agents of murine typhus and flea-borne spotted fever.

Rickettsia typhi and Rickettsia felis are the etiologic agents of murine typhus and flea-borne spotted fever, respectively. We have constructed two quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays to detect these pathogenic rickettsiae. The qPCR assays were developed utilizing unique sequences of the R.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli colonization factor types collected from 1997 to 2001 in US military personnel during operation Bright Star in northern Egypt.

Operation Bright Star (OBS) is a biennial, multinational exercise in Egypt involving 15000 US troops. Consistent with past observations in deployed troops, diarrhea is the most significant cause of morbidity. Focused efforts are ongoing to develop vaccines against the most common pathogens affecting our troops.

Clinic-based surveillance for bacterial- and rotavirus-associated diarrhea in Egyptian children.

To identify enteropathogens for vaccine development, we implemented clinic-based surveillance for severe pediatric diarrhea in Egypt's Nile River Delta. Over 2 years, a physician clinically evaluated and obtained stool samples for microbiology from patients with diarrhea and less than 6 years of age. In the first (N = 714) and second clinic (N = 561), respectively, 36% (N = 254) and 46% (N = 260) of children were infected with rotavirus, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), Campylobacter, or Shigella.

Human Infection with Rickettsia honei, Thailand.

Human spotted fever rickettsiosis was detected molecularly by 2 real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays performed on DNA extracted from a Thai patient's serum sample. Sequences of PCR amplicons from 5 rickettsial genes used for multilocus sequence typing were 100% identical with those deposited with GenBank for Rickettsia honei TT-118.

Diarrheal illness among deployed U.S. military personnel during Operation Bright Star 2001--Egypt.

In the fall of 2001, approximately 15,000 U.S. military personnel participated in a military exercise in the northwestern Egyptian desert.

Posttreatment changes in Escherichia coli antimicrobial susceptibility rates among diarrheic patients treated with ciprofloxacin.

Changes in antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli among deployed U.S. military personnel being treated for diarrhea were evaluated.

Universal high-level primary metronidazole resistance in Helicobacter pylori isolated from children in Egypt.

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on 48 isolates of Helicobacter pylori recovered from Egyptian children undergoing routine endoscopies. The isolates were universally highly resistant to metronidazole, but resistance to other tested antimicrobial agents was rare (4% for clarithromycin, erythromycin, and azithromycin resistance versus 2% for ciprofloxacin and ampicillin resistance). Use of metronidazole for the treatment of H.