<i>Ehrlichia</i> monocítica humana: primer reporte de caso pediátrico en Colombia

Abstract

Ehrlichiosis is a zoonosis, transmitted by ticks, of unknown incidence in Colombia, with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, remarkably similar to those that occur in other infections, which makes its diagnosis difficult. We present the case of a girl with fever, headache, nausea, generalized rash, epistaxis, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and meningitis, in whom ehrlichiosis was confirmed through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in whole blood. The clinical suspicion based on the symptoms and the history of contact with ticks and sick dogs were key to the initiation of early empirical treatment and allowed the patient to heal. The description of this case aims to make this disease more visible to avoid delays in diagnosis and treatment that can lead to adverse outcomes, including death.

First report of pediatric ehrlichiosis in Mexico

“…We identified twenty-three cases of ehrlichiosis in children and adolescents, including the present case 4,5,7,10,[12][13][14]20,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] . A summary of the cases of pediatric ehrlichiosis is shown in Table 1.…”

“…Only twenty-three cases of human ehrlichiosis in children and adolescents outside of the USA have been reported to date 4,7,[10][11][12][13][14][15] . We present the first pediatric case of ehrlichiosis in Mexico and the fourth in Latin America.…”

Etiologies of Zoonotic Tropical Febrile Illnesses That Are Not Part of the Notifiable Diseases in Colombia

“…In Colombia, three presumed cases of human ehrlichiosis have been reported to date, but two lack reliable diagnosis methods to be classified as confirmed cases [158,159]. The only convincing reported case is a febrile pediatric patient from a rural area of centralwestern Colombia who had come into contact with dog ticks and was diagnosed using qPCR [160]. Furthermore, several serological studies have evidenced exposure to Ehrlichia spp.…”