[Janice]

I would bet... we all have these, or some of these bacteria and yeast infections in common. Is this combination of things... "morgellons" ?







itrobacter freundii are commonly found in the environment, mainly in soil, water, and sewages. They are an indicator of potential contamination of water. They are also found on different organs of diseased animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians [1]. They are not known to interact with other organims.

In the environment, C. freundii can convert nitrate or the ammonium ion (which is a nitrogen atom combined with four hydrogen atoms) to nitrite; this reaction occurs in the environment as well as within the digestive tract of humans and other animals [3]. After it converts nitrate to nitrite in the environment, the nitrite is converted to nitrogen, and this final step completes the nitrogen cycle in the earth's atmosphere, which is made up of 85% nitrogen [3]. This organism's ecological role not only includes its important role in the nitrogen cycle, because it can also accumulate uranium (which is the basic material for nuclear technology) by building phosphate complexes [3].

Citrobacter freundii has also been investigated for biodegradation of tannic acid used in tannerys [3].
Pathology

As an opportunistic pathogen, Citrobacter freundii is often the cause of significant opportunistic infections, meaning that it does not generally cause disease in healthy human hosts. They only affect patients with a weak immune system, signifying that they need an "opportunity" to infect the person [2]. Therefore, in patients with a suppressed immune system, Citrobacter species are known to cause a wide variety of nosocomial infections of the respiratory tract, urinary tract, and the blood [2]. Hepatic, biliary and pancreatic disease are also common diseases that are caused by C. freundii. The biliary tract is the most common site of infection by the C. freundii bacilli [9].

One fatal disease that C. freundii has been associated with is neonatal meningitis. Neonatal meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges (the system of membranes which surround the CNS) due to bacterial invasion [10]. The mortality rate of Citrobacter meningitis is unacceptably high, with death rates of patients ranging from 25 to 50 %. Moreover, serious neurological problems still persist in 75% of survivors. In this disease, Citrobacter freundii is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier that consists of the choroid plexus epithelium and the brain capillary endothelium [10].

Tests performed by Badger et. al in the article “Citrobacter freundii Invades and Replicates in Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells”suggest that bacterial proliferation of C. freundii takes place at the intracellular level, which had been contrary to the general scientific thought. The findings indicate that C. freundii traverses vacuoles, replicates and is released into the basolateral side of the human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) in order to cross the blood-brain barrier. Further analysis may potentially allow for therapeutic strategies to treat infections. There is still no therapeutic treatment available [22].

Certain diseases studied in trout and cyprinids are also caused by C. freundii. C. freundii causes abnormal inflammatory changes in the intestine of trout and inflammatory and necrotic changes in the internal organs of cyprinids. The illness was discovered by means of artificial infection with a pure culture of C. freundii. This discovery established C. freundii as a cause of fish disease [11].

In a case study by the Journal of Medical Microbiology, a patient developed peritonitis and tunnel infection due to Citrobacter freundii which is uncommon. The patient was on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Usually the causing agents are gram-positive micro-organisms, particularly Staphylococcus aureus and Staphyloccus edpidermis. Also there are no known reports of tunnel infection due to C. freundii. Initial antibiotic therapy did not work and the infection continued to persist until the catheter was removed. This is clinically significant because Citrobacter Freundii show different antibiotic susceptibility which is why initial therapy was not successful. The patient did not respond to treatment until the catheter was removed showing Citrobacter freundii are opportunistic pathogens that affect hospitalized and immunocompromised patients [18].
Application to Biotechnology