[Bartonelloses].

Bartonellae belong to less known causal agents of many human diseases. They are gram-negative bacteria growing slowly on culture media enriched with hemin or bovine serum. The genus Bartonella, which currently involves more than 15 species, is present worldwide. Bartonellae live in natural foci in dependence on the occurrence of natural host (rodents, felines, canidae, human) and insect vector (flea, tick, louse). By reservoir animals they usually cause permanent intraerythrocytic bacteraemia without system inflammation symptoms. A classical example of a human disease is cat scratch disease (CSD) caused by Bartonella henselae and characterised by regional lymphagoitis and lymphadenitis. Increasing interest is being devoted to the ability of Bartonella sp. (e.i. B. quintana) to cause the opportune infections with diverse clinical manifestation: bacillary angiomatosis, specific liver and spleen vasculitis (peliosis hepatis, splenis), endocarditis and others. The issue of Bartonella infections is relatively new and its importance is still growing with increasing knowledge in this field.