The American journal of the medical sciences
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Review Comparative Study
Does Lyme disease occur in the south?: a survey of emerging tick-borne infections in the region.
Lyme disease is the most common arthropod-borne infection in the United States. However, the risk of infection varies widely by geographic region. In the South, Borrelia burgdorferi has been identified in ticks and small mammals, but transmission of the agent to humans has not been documented. The Lyme disease-like disorder reported from the region may have another etiology.
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In recent years, numerous previously known infections pathogens and their associated diseases have been recognized. Among these newly identified agents are the viruses that cause the hemorrhagic fevers, including Sin Nombre virus, the etiologic agent of the 1993 outbreak of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the American Southwest. Epidemiologic and laboratory investigations of the hemorrhagic fevers and their etiologic agents provide lessons that may be used collectively as a paradigm of the nature of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
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The ability of many different species of bacteria, including those that cause diseases in humans, to resist the inhibitory action of antimicrobial agents has become a global problem. Resistance continues to spread not only in nosocomial pathogens but in several key community-acquired organisms as well. ⋯ In addition, although the epidemiology of resistant organisms sometimes is similar to that of susceptible organisms of the same kind, in some situations it may be quite different. In this article, the authors highlight some of the pathways leading to the development of resistance in bacteria, the importance of antimicrobial use, and the relevance of these mechanisms to measures for the control of resistant bacteria in hospital and community settings.