Whipple's disease Whipple's disease Whipple's disease is a rare, systemic infectious disease caused by the bacterium "Tropheryma whipplei". First described by George Hoyt Whipple in 1907 and commonly considered a gastrointestinal disorder, Whipple's disease primarily causes malabsorption but may affect any part of the body including the heart, brain, joints, skin, lungs and the eyes. Weight loss, diarrhea, joint pain, and arthritis are common presenting symptoms, but the presentation can be highly variable and approximately 15% of patients do not have these classic signs and symptoms. Whipple's disease is significantly more common in men, with 87% of the patients being male. When
Whipple's disease dementia, memory loss, confusion, and decreased level of consciousness. Eye movement disturbances and myorhythmia (rapidly repetitive movements of the muscles) of the face, together referred to as "oculomasticatory myorhythmia", are highly characteristic for Whipple's disease. Weakness and poor coordination of part of the body, headaches, seizures, as well as a number of more uncommon neurological features, are present in some cases. "T. whipplei" is one of the actinomycetes, and is a distant relative of "Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare", and "Mycobacterium paratuberculosis" explaining in part why Whipple's disease is similar to the diseases caused by these bacteria. The disease is common in farmers