Serologic Evidence of Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis, Greece

摘要

To the Editor: Human granulo-cytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), a tickborneinfectious disease, was first describedin 1994 (1). Several cases have beenreported in the U nited States; reportsof acute cases in Europe have beenrare, although European serosurveysof the prevalence of antibodies to theHGE agent have been conducted (2–4). No similar serosurvey has beenconducted in Greece, although Ixodesricinus, thought to be the principal tickvector in Europe (5), is present innorthern Greece (6). Lyme disease,which is transmitted by the same tick,has never been reported, and the sero-prevalence of Lyme borreliosis inGreece is very low (7).We examined sera of 300 persons(100 men and 200 women) ages 15–78years (mean age ± standard deviation52.7±18.0 years), which were col-lected at six county hospitals in north-ern Greece and sent to our laboratoryfrom April to October 2000. The par-ticipants were mostly farmers, all ofwhom lived in rural areas of northernGreece. All participants were healthyand had been hospitalized for routineblood tests. Each patient completed aquestionnaire about medical history.The selected patients had no knownhistory of rickettsiosis and reported nofebrile or influenza-like illness duringthe past 6 months. Each participantprovided oral consent for the serum tobe used for detecting antibodiesagainst several infectious agentsrelated to zoonoses. The followinginformation was recorded for eachparticipant: age, sex, occupation, andarea of residence