Moraxella catarrhalis pneumonia in an AIDS patient: a case report.

Moraxella catarrhalis pneumonia, although in the immunocompromised patients is very uncommon for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). It demonstrates a potential pathogen with high mortality when the presence of heavy numbers of organisms, intracellularly and extracellularly, in the sputum Gram's stained smears confirmed by cultures. In 2007, the authors reported a case of a 28-year-old Thai single male patient with acquired-immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and Moraxella catarrhalis pneumonia who dramatically responded to two weeks of oral Amoxyclav (Amoxycillin trihydrate 500 milligrams + Clavulanic acid (Potassium clavulanate) 125 milligrams) treatment at 625 milligrams every 8 hours and then discharged. The present case report describes clinical and initial chest roentgenographic presentations of Moraxella catarrhalis pneumonia in AIDS patient. The importance of chest roentgenographic pictures, CD4/CD8-T lymphocyte ratio, sputum Gram's stainings, cultures with susceptibility testing in establishing a diagnosis, and protective vaccine are discussed.

Human genetic influence on susceptibility of tuberculosis: from infection to disease.

There is substantial evidence from studies on racial variation in susceptibility to tuberculosis (TB) that human genetic variation is an important determinant of the outcome of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M tb). In only a minority of cases is there an obvious identifiable risk factor such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, advanced age, diabetes, corticosteroid usage or alcohol abuse. In the remainder, a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors causes the development of clinical TB. Assessment of the contribution of genetics of host resistance to human TB is a long-standing challenge of human genetics research. Several studies demonstrated the association of various human leukocyte antigens (HLA) with disease susceptibility in different ethnic populations. There are likely to be many more TB-susceptibility genes to be identified.