Rodent-associated Bartonella febrile illness, Southwestern United States.
Serum specimens from 114 patients hospitalized with a febrile illness were tested with an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using Bartonella antigens prepared from 6 species of sigmodontine rodents and 3 known human Bartonella pathogens: B. henselae, B. quintana, and B. elizabethae. Acute- and convalescent-phase serum samples from 5 of these patients showed seroconversion with an IFA titer >512 to rodent-associated Bartonella antigens. The highest titer was against antigen derived from the white-throated woodrat (Neotoma albigula), although this rodent is not necessarily implicated as the source of infection. Three of the 5 who seroconverted showed no cross-reaction to the 3 Bartonella human pathogens. Common clinical characteristics were fever, chills, myalgias, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and transaminasemia. Although antibodies to Bartonella are cross-reactive, high-titer seroconversions to rodent-associated Bartonella antigens in adults with common clinical characteristics should stimulate the search for additional Bartonella human pathogens.
Iralu
Jonathan
J
US Public Health Service, Gallup, New Mexico, USA.
Bai
Ying
Y
Crook
Larry
L
Tempest
Bruce
B
Simpson
Gary
G
Mckenzie
Taylor
T
Koster
Frederick
F
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001474:Bartonella Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012377:Rodentia / Q000382:microbiology*; D015206:Southwestern United States / Q000453:epidemiology