title: Carrion's disease: an eradicable illness?
abstract: Carrion's disease is a neglected tropical disease caused by Bartonella bacilliformis, a vector-borne pathogen restricted to the Andean valleys of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Carrion's disease is a biphasic illness; in the acute phase the case-fatality rate can be as high as 88 %, related to high parasitemia, arriving to almost all erythrocytes, and secondary bacterial infections close related with the development of transient immunosuppression in the earlier illness phases. In addition, there are an undefined number of asymptomatic carriers that are reservoirs of the etiological agent of Carrion's disease in endemic areas, they make take into account due to they are the perpetuators of this disease. The actual scenario of Carrion's disease, in which the illness is arriving to new areas, due to the expansion of the vector's distribution, suggests that now may be a crucial time to design a strategy focusing on its elimination.
authors.affiliation: ISGlobal, Barcelona Ctr. Int. Health Res. (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic - Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Cláudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación e Innovación de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Avda. San Marcos cuadra 2, Chorrillos, Lima, Peru. ma.pons.cas@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Pons
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación e Innovación de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Avda. San Marcos cuadra 2, Chorrillos, Lima, Peru.
authors.forename: Juana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Del Valle Mendoza
authors.affiliation: ISGlobal, Barcelona Ctr. Int. Health Res. (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic - Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ruiz
mesh_terms: D001474:Bartonella Infections / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D045503:Bartonella bacilliformis / Q000502:physiology*; D003105:Colombia; D004484:Ecuador; D006801:Humans; D058069:Neglected Diseases / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010568:Peru
keywords: Bartonella bacilliformis; Carrion’s disease; Colombia; Ecuador; Eradication; Neglected tropical diseases; Oroya fever; Peru; South America