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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 1998, p. 2823-2827, Vol. 36, No. 10
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Human Exposure to a Granulocytic Ehrlichia and Other Tick-Borne Agents in Connecticut

Louis A. Magnarelli,1,* Jacob W. Ijdo,2 John F. Anderson,1 Steven J. Padula,3 Richard A. Flavell,4 and Erol Fikrig2

Department of Entomology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut 065041; Section of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine,2 and Immunobiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute,4 Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; and Division of Rheumatic Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 060303

Received 30 December 1997/Returned for modification 14 May 1998/Accepted 30 June 1998

Indirect fluorescent-antibody (IFA) staining methods with Ehrlichia equi (MRK or BDS strains) and Western blot analyses containing a human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) agent (NCH-1 strain) were used to confirm probable human cases of infection in Connecticut during 1995 and 1996. Also included were other tests for Ehrlichia chaffeensis, the agent of human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), Babesia microti, and Borrelia burgdorferi. Thirty-three (8.8%) of 375 patients who had fever accompanied by marked leukopenia or thrombocytopenia were serologically confirmed as having HGE. Western blot analyses of a subset of positive sera confirmed the results of the IFA staining methods for 15 (78.9%) of 19 seropositive specimens obtained from different persons. There was frequent detection of antibodies to a 44-kDa protein of the HGE agent. Serologic testing also revealed possible cases of Lyme borreliosis (n = 142), babesiosis (n = 41), and HME (n = 21). Forty-seven (26.1%) of 180 patients had antibodies to two or more tick-borne agents. Therefore, when one of these diseases is clinically suspected or diagnosed, clinicians should consider the possibility of other current or past tick-borne infections.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Entomology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, P.O. Box 1106, New Haven, CT 06504-1106. Phone: (203) 974-8466. Fax: (203) 974-8502. E-mail: louis.magnarelli{at}po.state.ct.us.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 1998, p. 2823-2827, Vol. 36, No. 10
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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