<i>Borrelia recurrentis</i>in Head Lice, Ethiopia

Boutellis, Amina; Mediannikov, Oleg; Bilcha, Kassahun Desalegn; Ali, Jemal Haidar; Campelo, Dayana; Barker, Stephen C.; Raoult, Didier

doi:10.3201/eid1905.121480

Cited by 57 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Recently, this bacterium was also detected in 23% of head lice clade C from patients with louse-borne relapsing fever in Ethiopia and, because these patients were also infested with body lice, the authors hypothesize that head lice might be contaminated by blood that is infected with B . recurrentis [21]. In this study, the discovery of B .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Head Lice of Pygmies Reveal the Presence of Relapsing Fever Borreliae in the Republic of Congo

et al. 2016

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BackgroundHead lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, occur in four divergent mitochondrial clades (A, B, C and D), each having particular geographical distributions. Recent studies suggest that head lice, as is the case of body lice, can act as a vector for louse-borne diseases. Therefore, understanding the genetic diversity of lice worldwide is of critical importance to our understanding of the risk of louse-borne diseases.Methodology/Principal FindingsHere, we report the results of the first molecular screening of pygmies’ head lice in the Republic of Congo for seven pathogens and an analysis of lice mitochondrial clades. We developed two duplex clade-specific real-time PCRs and identified three major mitochondrial clades: A, C, and D indicating high diversity among the head lice studied. We identified the presence of a dangerous human pathogen, Borrelia recurrentis, the causative agent of relapsing fever, in ten clade A head lice, which was not reported in the Republic of Congo, and B. theileri in one head louse. The results also show widespread infection among head lice with several species of Acinetobacter. A. junii was the most prevalent, followed by A. ursingii, A. baumannii, A. johnsonii, A. schindleri, A. lwoffii, A. nosocomialis and A. towneri.Conclusions/SignificanceOur study is the first to show the presence of B. recurrentis in African pygmies’ head lice in the Republic of Congo. This study is also the first to report the presence of DNAs of B. theileri and several species of Acinetobacter in human head lice. Further studies are needed to determine whether the head lice can transmit these pathogenic bacteria from person to another.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…baumannii , and Y . pestis in natural settings [6, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23]. Furthermore, experimental infections have shown that head lice may also act as a vector of louse-borne diseases [24, 25], justifying a detailed understanding of their genetic diversity and distribution worldwide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Head Lice of Pygmies Reveal the Presence of Relapsing Fever Borreliae in the Republic of Congo

et al. 2016

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“…15 It has typically been transmitted by body lice, but recently, DNA of B. quintana has also been found in head lice collected from homeless individuals in Nepal, 9 the United States, 16 France, 17 Senegal, 11 and Ethiopia. 10,18 The detection of B. quintana in African lice remains limited to only a small number of countries. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate the presence of B. quintana in head and body lice in different areas of African countries suffering from poverty, social instability, or war and identify the relationship between louse phenotypes and genotypes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Bartonella quintana in African Body and Head Lice

Sangaré¹,

Boutellis²,

Drali³

et al. 2014

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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Abstract. Currently, the body louse is the only recognized vector of Bartonella quintana, an organism that causes trench fever. In this work, we investigated the prevalence of this bacterium in human lice in different African countries. We tested 616 head lice and 424 body lice from nine African countries using real-time polymerase chain reaction targeting intergenic spacer region 2 and specific B. quintana genes. Overall, B. quintana DNA was found in 54% and 2% of body and head lice, respectively. Our results also show that there are more body lice positive for B. quintana in poor countries, which was determined by the gross domestic product, than in wealthy areas (228/403 versus 0/21, P 0.001). A similar finding was obtained for head lice (8/226 versus 2/390, P = 0.007). Our findings suggest that head lice in Africa may be infected by B. quintana when patients live in poor economic conditions and are also exposed to body lice.

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“…2,6,7 Regarding treatment, penicillins and tetracyclines, usually in a single dose, are the antibiotics of choice for LBRF. Outcome is usually good if prompt antibiotic treatment is administered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%