Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen primarily associated with hospital-acquired infections. The recent increase in incidence, largely associated with infected combat troops returning from conflict zones, coupled with a dramatic increase in the incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains, has significantly raised the profile of this emerging opportunistic pathogen. Herein, we provide an overview of the pathogen, discuss some of the major factors that have led to its clinical prominence and outline some of the novel therapeutic strategies currently in development.

Background: Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is an acquired prion disease causally related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy that has occurred predominantly in young adults. All clinical cases studied have been methionine homozygotes at codon 129 of the prion protein gene (PRNP) with distinctive neuropathological findings and molecular strain type (PrP Sc type 4). Modeling studies in transgenic mice suggest that other PRNP genotypes will also be susceptible to infection with bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions but may develop distinctive phenotypes. Objective: To describe the histopathologic and molecular investigation in a young British woman with atypical sporadic CJD and valine homozygosity at PRNP codon 129.