Home > Encyclopedia of Medicine > Bacillary Angiomatosis

Definition

A life-threatening but curable infection that causes an eruption of purple lesions on or under the skin that resemble Kaposi's sarcoma. The infection, which occurs almost exclusively in patients with AIDS, can be a complication of cat-scratch disease.

Description

Bacillary angiomatosis is a re-emerging bacterial infection that is identical or closely related to one which commonly afflicted thousands of soldiers during World War I. Today, the disease, caused by two versions of the same bacteria, is linked to homeless AIDS patients and to those afflicted with cat-scratch disease.

The infection is rarely seen today in patients who don't have HIV. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease...