The pathology of psittacosis: A report of two cases with hepatitis

1. 1. Human psittacosis is a disease of increasing importance. It occurs not only sporadically following exposure to psittacine birds, but epidemics are being encountered among poultry workers exposed to chickens, ducks and turkeys. 2. 2. Psittacosis varies in severity from a mild, relatively asymptomatic influenza-like illness to a severe systemic, fatal disease. 3. 3. The clinical features of turkey-borne psittacosis are described as they were observed in an outbreak infecting twenty-four of forty workers. 4. 4. Two of the patients infected in this epidemic exhibited clinical and laboratory evidence of hepatitis with renal decompensation. One of the patients died and autopsy findings revealed a severe interstitial pneumonias with tracheobronchitis, acute toxic nephrosis, acute non-specific reactive hepatitis, and multiple focal lymphocytic meningitis.