Coexistence of antibodies to tick-borne agents of babesiosis and Lyme borreliosis in patients from Cotia county, State of São Paulo, Brazil.
This paper reports a case of coinfection caused by pathogens of Lyme disease and babesiosis in brothers. This was the first case of borreliosis in Brazil, acquired in Cotia County, State of S o Paulo, Brazil. Both children had tick bite history, presented erythema migrans, fever, arthralgia, mialgia, and developed positive serology (ELISA and Western-blotting) directed to Borrelia burgdorferi G 39/40 and Babesia bovis antigens, mainly of IgM class antibodies, suggestive of acute disease. Also, high frequencies of antibodies to B. bovis was observed in a group of 59 Brazilian patients with Lyme borreliosis (25.4%), when compared with that obtained in a normal control group (10.2%) (chi-square = 5.6; p < 0.05). Interestingly, both children presented the highest titers for IgM antibodies directed to both infective diseases, among all patients with Lyme borreliosis.
Yoshinari
Natalino Hajime
NH
Laboratório de Investigação em Reumatologia (LIM-17), Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. Lyme@lim17.fm.usp.br
Abrão
Milena Garcia
MG
Bonoldi
Virginia Lúcia Nazário
VL
Soares
Cleber Oliveira
CO
Madruga
Claudio Roberto
CR
Scofield
Alessandra
A
Massard
Carlos Luis
CL
da Fonseca
Adivaldo Henrique
AH
D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood; D016793:Babesia bovis / Q000276:immunology*; D001404:Babesiosis / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D025065:Borrelia burgdorferi / Q000276:immunology*; D001938:Brazil; D002417:Cattle; D002648:Child; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D007299:Insect Bites and Stings / Q000150:complications*; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D013987:Ticks
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan