A newly identified tick-borne Borrelia species and relapsing fever in Tanzania

Tick-borne relapsing fever caused by the spirochaete Borrelia duttonii is a common cause of serious illness in central Tanzania. Screening of Ornithodoros sp ticks from infested houses for the presence of B duttonii had detected a previously unidentified species of Borrelia. We investigated whether...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Lancet (British edition) 2003-10, Vol.362 (9392), p.1283-1284
Main Authors: Kisinza, William N, McCall, PJ, Mitani, Harumi, Talbert, Alison, Fukunaga, Masahito
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arachnids
Bacteria
Bacterial diseases
Biological and medical sciences
Borrelia
Borrelia - classification
Borrelia - isolation & purification
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - classification
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - isolation & purification
Borrelia infections
Children
Fever
Field study
Genotyping
Hospitals
Human bacterial diseases
Human populations
Humans
Illnesses
Infections
Infectious diseases
Malaria
Medical sciences
Microscopy
Parasites
Phylogenetics
Plasmodium
Population
Relapsing fever
Relapsing Fever - epidemiology
Relapsing Fever - microbiology
Species
Spirochetes
Tanzania - epidemiology
Tick-borne diseases
Ticks
Towns
Tropical bacterial diseases
Tropical medicine
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Description
Summary:Tick-borne relapsing fever caused by the spirochaete Borrelia duttonii is a common cause of serious illness in central Tanzania. Screening of Ornithodoros sp ticks from infested houses for the presence of B duttonii had detected a previously unidentified species of Borrelia. We investigated whether this species infected the human population in a central Tanzanian village, by use of blood slide examination and PCR. PCR was twice as sensitive in detection of infections, showing Borrelia sp in six (11%) of 54 children with fever, and in 13 (4%) of 307 otherwise healthy children. Genotyping Borrelia from 17 infections identified Borrelia duttonii and an unnamed species. Our findings show that the newly discovered species is a causal agent of tick-borne relapsing fever.
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)14609-0