Summary
- Spirochaetes are very thin, spiral shaped organisms.
- There are a number of species.
- The bacteria take their name from various sources: Borrelia (after the French bacteriologist Amédée Borrel), leptospires (meaning “fine coils”), treponemes (“turning, drilling”).
- Spirilla are usually classified separately.
- As yet there is no definitive nomenclature for the various subspecies.
|
T. pallidum |
syphilis, bejel (non-venereal syphilis) |
|
T. pertenue |
framboesia (= yaws, = pian) |
|
T. carateum |
pinta |
|
L. interrogans |
Weil’s disease and more mild forms |
|
B. recurrentis |
louse-borne borreliosis |
|
B. duttonii, B. hispanica, B. persica and others |
tick-borne borreliosis |
|
B. burgdorferi sl |
Lyme disease |
|
B. vincenti |
tropical ulcer, Plaut-Vincent’s angina, cancrum oris, Fournier’s scrotal gangrene, trench mouth (necrotising ulcerative gingivitis) |
|
Spirillum minus |
sodoku or rat bite fever |
|
Streptobacillus moniliformis |
Haverhill fever |
There are Treponema diseases:
- Venereal syphilis or Lues
- Non-venereal syphilis or Bejel
- Framboesia or Yaws or Pian
- Pinta