Overview
Introduction
Whipple disease is an uncommon systemic infection caused by the slow growing, gram positive bacterium Tropheryma whipplei .
Whipple disease is an uncommon systemic infection caused by the slow-growing, gram-positive bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. The organism may be carried without illness, but invasive disease can affect the intestine, joints, brain, eyes, heart, lymphatic system, lungs, or several sites at once. The pattern that should catch a nurse’s attention is often broader than diarrhea alone: years of migratory arthralgia followed by weight loss, chronic diarrhea or steatorrhea, fever, lymphadenopathy, or unexplained inflammation. New cognitive or movement changes, visual symptoms, or culture-negative endocarditis can signal extraintestinal disease even when gastrointestinal symptoms are mild or absent. [1][3][4]