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Haemophilus influenzae is a major bacterial pathogen in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), although most infections with this organism occur in the respiratory tract. We describe an adult with HIV infection who presented with epididymo-orchitis due to H. influenzae. Eleven prior cases of H. influenzae epididymo-orchitis have been published, but all of these cases occurred in pediatric patients. Little is known about the prevalence of genitourinary tract infections caused by H. influenzae among adults. H. influenzae is a relatively rare cause of bacteremia in adults, but the frequency of H. influenzae bacteremia has been increasing among the HIV-positive population.

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The sensitivity and specificity of culture, acridine orange stain, and Gram stain were determined using needle aspiration (NA) material obtained from 82 rats with acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia and 18 control rats. Lungs were then processed for either bacterial quantitation or histopathologic examination. NA culture proved to be the most sensitive and specific (55 and 100%, respectively). Sensitivity of acridine orange stain was 40%, whereas Gram stain was only 29%. The specificity of each stain was at least 94%. Lung bacterial concentrations influenced the sensitivities of all three techniques, with better sensitivity found in NA samples obtained from lung with bacterial concentration of at least 10(4) colony-forming units (cfu) of P. aeruginosa. Acridine orange and Gram stain results were similar except in NA samples from lung with bacterial concentration of less than 10(4) cfu in which acridine orange stain was more sensitive. The presence of stains identifying bacteria collected from animals with sterile NA culture was found in a small but significant number of samples, suggesting the presence of nonviable though stainable organisms. Use of all three techniques (culture, acridine orange stain, and Gram stain) increased sensitivity to approximately 70% with minimal decrease of specificity.

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