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Definition: Psittacosis |
PsittacosisNoun1. Infectious disease of birds. 2. An atypical pneumonia caused by a rickettsia microorganism and transmitted to humans from infected birds. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Biology & Biotechnology | A lung disease caused by a Chlamydia bacterium; occurs in domestic fowls, ducks, pigeons, turkeys and many wild birds and is contracted by man by contact with these birds; the human symptoms are headache, nausea, epistaxis and fever and usually with added symptoms of bronchopneumonia. Source: European Union. (references) |
Medicine | The disease communicated by psittacine birds. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Psittacosis -- also known as parrot disease, parrot fever, and ornithosis -- is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Mycoplasma psittaci and contracted from parrots, macaws, cockatiels, and parakeets. The incidence of infection in canaries and finches is believed to be lower than in psittacine birds.In birds, Chlamydia psittaci infection is referred to as avian chlamydiosis (AC). Infected birds shed the bacteria through feces and nasal discharges, which can remain infectious for several months.
In humans, after incubation period of 5-14 days, the symptoms of the disease range from inapparent illness to systemic illness with severe pneumonia. It presents chiefly as an atypical pneumonia with influenza-like symptoms like fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a dry cough. Pneumonia can be often visualized on chest x-ray.
Diagnosis involves cultures from respiratory secretions of patients, fourfold or greater increase in antibody titers against C. psittaci in blood samples combined with the probable course of the disease.
Since 1996, fewer than 50 confirmed cases were reported in the United States each year. Many more cases may occur that are not correctly diagnosed or reported.
Complications in the form of endocarditis, hepatitis, myocarditis, arthritis, keratoconjunctivitis, and neurologic complications (encephalitis) may occasionally occur. Severe pneumonia requiring intensive-care support may also occur. Fatal cases have been reported (less than 1% of cases).
Bird owners, pet shop employees, and veterinarians are at risk of the infection. Some outbreaks of psittacosis in poultry processing plants have been reported.
The infection is treated with antibiotics. Tetracyclines are the drugs of choice for treating patients with psittacosis. Most persons respond to oral therapy (100 mg of doxycycline administered twice a day or 500 mg of tetracycline hydrochloride administered four times a day). For initial treatment of severely ill patients, doxycycline hyclate may be administered intravenously at a dosage of 4.4 mg/kg (2 mg/lb) body weight per day divided into two infusions per day (up to 100 mg per dose). In past years, tetracycline hydrochloride has been administered to patients intravenously (10-15 mg/kg body weight per day divided into four doses per day). Remission of symptoms usually is evident within 48-72 hours. However, relapse can occur, and treatment must continue for at least 10-14 days after fever abates. Although its in vivo efficacy has not been determined, erythromycin probably is the best alternative agent for persons for whom tetracycline is contraindicated (e.g., children aged less than 9 years and pregnant women).
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This article is largely adaptation from sources available from http://www.cdc.gov.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Psittacosis."
Synonyms: PsittacosisSynonyms: ornithosis (n), parrot disease (n), parrot fever (n). (additional references) |
| Domain | Title |
References | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Diagnosis of psittacosis can be difficult. (references) | |
Psittacosis is a reportable condition in most states. (references) | ||
Outbreaks of psittacosis in poultry processing plants have been reported. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Psittacosis" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Psittacosis" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 3 | 202,518 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
psittacosis | 49 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "psittacosis"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Danish | psittakose, psittacose (ornithosis, parrot disease), papegøjesyge (ornithosis, parrot disease), ornithose (ornithosis, parrot disease), fuglesyge (ornithosis, parrot disease). (various references) | |
Dutch | psittacosis (ornithosis, parrot disease), psittacose (ornithosis, parrot disease), papegaaienziekte (ornithosis, parrot disease). (various references) | |
Finnish | psittakoosi, papukaijatauti, ornitoosi. (various references) | |
French | psittacose. (various references) | |
German | psittakose (ornithosis, parrot disease), papageienkrankheit (ornithosis, parrot disease). (various references) | |
Greek | ψιττάκωση. (various references) | |
Italian | psittacosi (ornithosis, parrot disease). (various references) | |
Manx | sittakoys. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ittacosispsay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | psitacose. (various references) | |
Russian | пситтакоз, попугайная болезнь. (various references) | |
Spanish | psittacosis, psitacosis (parrot disease, parrot fever). (various references) | |
Swedish | psittacos, papegojsjuka. (various references) | |
Turkish | papağan humması, kuşlardan bulaşan bir hastalık. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Psittacosis" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Pittakos, psittaci, psittacoid. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-i-i-o-p-s-s-s-t-t" | |
-2 letters: isostatic, opticists. | |
-3 letters: coassist, opticist, potassic, spastics. | |
-4 letters: psoatic, scotias, spastic, statics, tipcats. | |
-5 letters: ascots, aspics, assist, atopic, attics, cassis, coapts, coasts, coatis, cottas, optics, otitic, otitis, pastis, patios, patois, picots, piscos, posits, ptosis, ptotic, scatts, scotia, spaits, spicas, stasis, static, stoats, stoics, tipcat, toasts, topics. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-i-i-o-p-s-s-s-t-t" | |
+2 letters: sophisticates. | |
+3 letters: astrophysicist, neoplasticists. | |
+4 letters: astrophysicists, pantisocratists, sophistications. | |
+5 letters: nonpsychiatrists, photodissociates. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
