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A new tick-borne bacterium infecting humans with ehrlichiosis hasbeen discovered in Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was identified as anew strain of bacteria through DNA testing conducted at MayoClinic. The findings appear in the Aug. 4 edition of the NewEngland Journal of Medicine. Doctors at Mayo Clinic, the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC), the University of Minnesota, the University ofWisconsin, and state and local health departments say the newspecies from the Ehrlichia genus can cause a feverish illness inhumans. The new bacterium, not yet named, has been identified inmore than 25 people and found in black-legged ticks, also known asdeer ticks (Ixodes scapularis), in Minnesota and Wisconsin.Researchers used culture and genetic analyses. "Before this report, human ehrlichiosis was thought to be very rareor absent in Minnesota and Wisconsin," says Bobbi Pritt, M.D., aMayo Clinic microbiologist and director of the ClinicalParasitology and Virology Laboratories who helped coordinate themulti-agency team. "Therefore, physicians might not know to lookfor Ehrlichia infections at all." Ehrlichia infect and kill white blood cells and may cause fever , body aches, headache and fatigue . More severe disease may involve multiple organs such as thelungs, kidneys and brain and require hospitalization. Ehrliochosisrarely results in death. All four patients described in the New England Journal of Medicinearticle suffered fever and fatigue. One patient, who had alreadyreceived a bilateral lung transplant, was hospitalized briefly forhis illness. All four patients recovered following antibiotic treatment with doxycycline, the drug of choice for treatingehrlichiosis. Although more than 25 cases have been identified,many more have likely been missed or unreported, Dr. Pritt says. The investigation began after Carol Werner, then a technologist atMayo Clinic Health System's Eau Claire hospital, noted an abnormalEhrlichia Polymerace Chain Reaction (PCR) result in 2009 and raisedthe first red flag. Mayo Clinic then began investigating with theCDC, the universities and several public health departments. TheMinnesota Department of Health last year put out a health advisoryalerting people that it and its Wisconsin counterpart were seeingincreasing reports of ehrlichiosis in humans. "As the deer tick population continues to spread and increaseacross Wisconsin, we are likely to see increasing incidence of thisnew infection, just as we have seen with Lyme disease and anaplasmosis which are transmitted by the same tick species,'says co-author Susan Paskewitz, Ph.D, an entomologist at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison. To date, thousands of blood samples from across the United Stateshave been screened by Mayo Clinic laboratory technologists, and thebacterium has been detected only in specimens collected fromWisconsin and Minnesota. Thousands of ticks across the country havealso been analyzed, and only those from the two states have beencarriers. Because the bacterium is likely transmitted through the bite of aninfected tick, Dr. Pritt cautions that people should apply insectrepellent and wear pants and long-sleeved shirts when activeoutdoors. Doctors need to know to test for ehrlichiosis in the two states sothe diagnosis is not missed. However, traditional blood antibodytests may offer misleading results and fail to accurately identifythe new species. A specific antibody test for the new bacterium hasbeen developed by the CDC but isn't widely available. Instead, amolecular blood test that detects DNA from the new Ehrlichiaspecies is the preferred method for detecting this disease insymptomatic patients. When testing for this new Ehrlichia species, physicians should alsoconsider testing for other tick-borne diseases, such as Lymedisease, babesiosis and anaplasmosis, all prevalent in Minnesotaand Wisconsin, Dr. Pritt says. Genetically, the new bacterium bears closest similarity to anotherspecies of Ehrlichia -- E. muris -- that infects small rodents anddeer in Eastern Europe and Asia. E. muris rarely infects humans,and no cases have been reported in North America. Source: Mayo Clinic Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Industrial Timing Belts , China Motor V Belt for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Motor V Belt.
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