Difteria pelo Corynebacterium ulcerans: uma zoonose emergente no Brasil e no mundo

Abstract

The article is a literature review on the emergence of human infections caused by Corynebacterium ulcerans in many countries including Brazil. Articles in Medline/PubMed and SciELO databases published between 1926 and 2011 were reviewed, as well as articles and reports of the Brazilian Ministry of Health. It is presented a fast, cost-effective and easy to perform screening test for the presumptive diagnosis of C. ulcerans and C. diphtheriae infections in most Brazilian public and private laboratories. C. ulcerans spread in many countries and recent isolation of this pathogen in Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil, is a warning to clinicians, veterinarians, and microbiologists on the occurrence of zoonotic diphtheria and C. ulcerans dissemination in urban and rural areas of Brazil and/or Latin America.

Outbreak with clonally related isolates of Corynebacterium ulcerans in a group of water rats

“…With respect to its zoonotic potential C. ulcerans is one of the most important members of the genus and was referred to as an emerging pathogen [7,34,39,40]. Numerous reports state zoonotic potential by contact with companion or farm animals [12,22,41], but proven transmission of a toxigenic C. ulcerans strain between an animal and a human by isolation of an identical toxigenic C. ulcerans strain from an animal and a human contact person is documented only in four reported cases involving two dogs [19,41], a cat [20] and a pig [12], respectively.…”

Draft Genome Sequence of Toxigenic Corynebacterium ulcerans Strain 04-7514, Isolated from a Dog in France

“…Additionally, in 1926, a strain of C. ulcerans coding for diphtheria toxin was isolated from the human throat (5). This diphtheria toxin has 95% similarity compared to the diphtheria toxin present in C. diphtheriae (2).…”

Draft Genome Sequence of Corynebacterium ulcerans FRC58, Isolated from the Bronchitic Aspiration of a Patient in France

“…These differences can explain the lack of classical diphtheria symptoms in certain cases of C. ulcerans infection. Even in the absence of DT production, C. ulcerans can cause lower respiratory tract infections; moreover, similarly to the pathogenicity of nontoxigenic C. diphtheriae strains, the pathogenicity of C. ulcerans does not depend on the production of DT (4, 9, 10). This scenario demonstrates the need to obtain genomic data for the emergent pathogen C. ulcerans to describe the virulence mechanisms of this bacterial species.…”