The Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) was described in USA in 1993. Cases of HPS have been retrospectively diagnosed by serological techniques back to 1959 in USA and to 1980 in Argentina. In Chile, cases have been reported since 1995. Infection with hantavirus was studied in three family groups who were attended at the Hospital Clínico Valdivia as probable severe cases of atypical pneumonia between February and April 1993. IgG anti hantavirus antibodies with titles >1/6400, were found in 5 of 7 patients. Their relatives were serologically negative. The patients presented different degrees of pulmonary and body damage, hypoxemia, thrombocytopenia and hypoalbuminemia. In some cases, increases in leukocyte counts, in GOT and LDH plasmatic levels and hemoconcentration, were found. The HPS related risk factors found were rurality, farm work surrounding their houses, contact with rodents and their excrements, cleaning of empty rural cottages and warehouses. The presence of HPS since 1993 was established in three family groups living in the province of Valdivia. These findings indicate that in unexplained cases of acute respiratory distress with epidemiological information of contact with rodents, it is necessary to bear the etiology of hantavirus in mind.
El genero Pseudomonas agrupa muchas especies, la mayor parte de ellas fitopatogenas (1). Existe un grupo de especies capaz de producir enfermedad en el hombre siendo la Pseudomonas aeruginosa la de mayor aislamiento en microbiologia medica, sin embargo, aquellas de menor frecuencia de aislamiento en la practica medica y que tienen un rol patogeno incierto, han sido objeto de numerosas investigaciones en los ultimos anos (2) (3) (4) (5).A este grupo pertenece las Pseudomonas stutzeri que ha sido aislada en diferentes localizaciones en el hombre. Fue descrita en 1 895 por Burry y Stutzer (6) y denominada Bacillus desnitrificans IT, senalando como fuentes de aislamiento el estiercol, el humus y el heno. Con posterioridad a la publicacion de Van Niel y Allen en 1952 (7), algunos autores han hecho referencia a este microorganismo que ha sido aislado con mayor frecuencia en cuadros de septicenias, (8) a partir uno de los cuales nosotros tambien lo hemos aislado.La Pseudomonas stutzeri es un bacilo Gram negativo no esporulado, aerobio, movil por flagelacion monotrica.Las colonias en agar tryptosa son adherentes y presentan inicialmente un aspecto seco y verrucoso semejando un crater de bordes elevados con un pequeno halo de diseminaci6n, pudiendo la colonia tomar posteriormente un aspecto mucoide.Las reacciones bioquimicas se detallan en la tabla 1.Aunque las fuentes de infection no estan bien establecidas, creemos que un mayor conocimien-
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.