Brazilian Purpuric Fever

Brazilian purpuric fever (BPF) is an illness of children caused by the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius which is ultimately fatal due to sepsis. BPF was first recognized in the São Paulo state of Brazil in 1984. At this time, young children between the ages of 3 months and 10 years were contracting a strange illness which was characterized by high fever and purpuric lesions on the body. These cases were all fatal, and originally thought to be due to meningitis. It was not until the autopsies were conducted that the cause of these deaths was confirmed to be infection by H. aegyptius. Although BPF was thought to be confined to Brazil, other cases occurred in Australia and the United States during 1984–1990.

Read more about Brazilian Purpuric Fever:  Haemophilus Influenzae, Clinical Presentation, Diagnosis, Transmission, Pathogenesis, Risk Factors, Methods of Control, Treatment

Famous quotes containing the words brazilian and/or fever:

    If I were a Brazilian without land or money or the means to feed my children, I would be burning the rain forest too.
    Sting [Gordon Matthew Sumner] (b. 1951)

    When I was very young and the urge to be someplace was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked.... In other words, I don’t improve, in further words, once a bum always a bum. I fear the disease is incurable.
    John Steinbeck (1902–1968)