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Article: Severe Ehrlichia chaffeensis infection in a lung transplant recipient: a review of ehrlichiosis in the immunocompromised patient. (Dispatches).
- Article from:
- Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Article date:
- March 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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We describe a case of human ehrlichiosis in a lung transplant recipient and review published reports on ehrlichiosis in immunocompromised patients. Despite early therapy with doxycycline, our patient had unusually severe illness with features of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Of 23 reported cases of ehrlichiosis in immunocompromised patients, organ failure occurred in all patients and 6 (25%) died.
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Since the discovery in 1987 of Ehrlichia as a cause of tick-borne disease in humans (1), ehrlichiosis has been recognized as an increasingly important cause of acute febrile illness (2,3). The two main pathogenic species are Ehrlichia ...