Human Exposure to Tickborne Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia miyamotoi , the Netherlands (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/7/13-1525)

摘要

To the Editor: Borrelia miyamotoi is a relatively novel tickborne relapsing fever spirochete, and is a different species than B. burgdorferi sensu lato, the causative pathogen of Lyme borreliosis (1). B. miyamotoi was first isolated in 1995 from Ixodes persulcatus ticks in Japan, after which it was detected in ticks in North America, Europe, and Russia (1,2). B. miyamotoi infections among humans were first reported in Russia in 2011 (3), and in 2013 in the United States (4). Recently, the first patient infected with B. miyamotoi was reported in the Netherlands (5). Conditions reported to be associated with B. miyamotoi infection were systemic, including malaise and fever, meningoencephalitis, and neurologic symptoms. Because of the nature of these manifestations and because regular diagnostic tests for B. burgdorferi will most probably not detect B. miyamotoi infections (3,5), B. miyamotoi infections may remain undiagnosed. Nevertheless, the relationship between B. miyamotoi infection and illness is not very well established; the case-patients reported, including the patient in the Netherlands, were usually hospitalized, severely ill, and often immunocompromised (3–5). The extent to which B. miyamotoi causes infection and disease in immunocompetent persons is unknown. As a first step to indicate the population at risk for infection, we investigated human exposure to B. miyamotoi in the Netherlands.