Disparities in Breast Cancer: Private Patients Have Better Outcomes Than Public Patients.

Introduction: Different outcomes in breast cancer have been reported for low and high socio-economic groups. We present data quantifying disparities between South African public and private patients.

Methods: Records of 240 consecutive patients treated in 2008 in a public versus 97 patients in a private health facility were reviewed for demographic and oncologic data.

Culture-negative endocarditis due to Bartonella quintana.

Bartonella spp. was first described as a possible cause of culture-negative endocarditis in 1993, and has since emerged as a significant cause of this condition worldwide. We describe a complicated case of culture-negative endocarditis in an immune-competent male patient, which was confirmed on resected heart valves to have been caused by Bartonella quintana by broad-range 16S ribosomal RNA polymerase chain reaction.