ABSTRACT
The authors describe a severe case of psittacosis requiring intensive care, and summarize the potential means of diagnosis, as well as the epidemiologic and therapeutic aspects of the disease. Clinical signs of ornithosis do not allow a reliable differentiation from other atypical bacterial infections, thus, exploring the possible exposure to birds in the patient's history is most important in these cases. Knowledge of bird exposure in the history leads the clinician to the correct diagnosis that may result quick recovery due to the adequate therapy. This notifiable disease may presumably belong to the misdiagnosed or delayed diagnosed infections even today so the underrepresented case-reports do not necessarily reflect the actual epidemiological situation in Hungary. The aim of the authors was to call the attention to this sometimes fatal disease occurring not as rarely as supposed.
