Table 4.2.
Newly identified microbial pathogens
| Agent | Type | Disease | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Calicivirus (Norwalk agent) | Virus | Acute gastroenteritis |
| 1973 | Rotavirus | Virus | Major cause of infantile diarrhea worldwide |
| 1975 | Parvovirus B19 | Virus | Aplastic crisis in chronic hemolytic anemia |
| 1976 | Cryptosporidiumparvum | Parasite | Acute and chronic diarrhea |
| 1977 | Ebola virus | Virus | Ebola hemorrhagic fever |
| 1977 | Hantaan virus | Virus | Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) |
| 1977 | Legionella pneumophila | Bacterium | Legionnaires’ disease |
| 1977 | Campylobacterjejuni | Bacterium | Enteric pathogens distributed globally |
| 1980 | Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) | Virus | T-cell lymphoma-leukemia |
| 1981 | Toxin producing strains of Staphylococcus aureus | Bacterium | Toxic shock syndrome |
| 1982 | Escherichia coli O157:H7 | Bacterium | Hemorrhagic colitis; hemolytic uremic syndrome |
| 1982 | Human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2) | Virus | Hairy cell leukemia |
| 1982 | Borrelia burgdorferi | Bacterium | Lyme disease |
| 1983 | Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) | Virus | Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) |
| 1985 | Helicobacter pylori | Bacterium | Peptic ulcer disease |
| 1985 | Enterocytozoon bieneusi | Parasite | Persistent diarrhea |
| 1986 | Cyclospora cayetanensis | Parasite | Persistent diarrhea |
| 1988 | Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) | Virus | Exanthema subitum |
| 1988 | Hepatitis E | Virus | Enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis |
| 1989 | Ehrlichia chafeensis | Bacterium | Human ehrlichiosis |
| 1989 | Hepatitis C | Virus | Parenterally transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis |
| 1991 | Guanarito virus | Virus | Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever |
| 1991 | Encephalitozoon hellem | Parasite | Conjunctivitis, disseminated disease |
| 1991 | New species of Babesia | Parasite | Atypical babesiosis |
| 1992 | Bartonella henselae | Bacterium | Cat-scratch disease; bacillary angiomatosis |
| 1992 | Tropheryma whipplei | Bacterium | Impaired absorption of nutrients, weight loss, joint pain, and anemia |
| 1992 | Vibrio cholerae O139 | Bacterium | Cholera with wide-spectrum drug resistance |
| 1993 | Sin Nombre virus | Virus | Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) |
| 1993 | Encephalitozoon cuniculi | Parasite | Disseminated disease |
| 1994 | Sabia virus | Virus | Brazilian hemorrhagic fever |
| 1994 | Henipaviruses (Hendra) | Virus | Encephalitic disease carried by fruit bats that can be transmitted from horses to humans (Hendra) |
| 1995 | Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) | Virus | Associated with Kaposi's sarcoma in AIDS patients |
| 1996 | New variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease agent | Prion | Progressive degenerative neurologic disease |
| 1997 | H5N1 strain of avian influenza | Virus | Influenza transmitted from chickens to humans; often fatal |
| 1999 | Henipaviruses (Nipah) | Virus | Encephalitic disease carried by fruit bats that can be transmitted from pigs to humans |
| 2001 | Human metapneumovirus | Virus | Acute respiratory infections |
| 2002 | Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus | Bacterium | First vancomycin-resistant S. aureus strain identified in the USA |
| 2003 | SARS coronavirus | Virus | Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) |
| 2003 | Clostridium difficile, strain NAPI/027 | Bacteria | Pseudomembranous colitis |
| 2005 | Bocavirus | Virus | Associated with lower respiratory tract infections in children; discovered through molecular screening of respiratory tract samples |
| 2007 | New strain of Ebola (the fifth one identified) | Virus | Hemorrhagic fever |
| 2008 | Transplant-associated arenavirus related to lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus | Virus | Severe febrile illness |
| 2008 | Plasmodium knowlesi as a human pathogen | Parasite | Previously classified as a cause of simian malaria, this parasite is now known to be a cause of human malaria in Malaysia, sometimes misdiagnosed as Plasmodium malariae, a milder form of malaria |
| 2009 | Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus | Virus | Pandemic influenza (see Chapter 161) |
Updated from World Health Organization.7