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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 1998, p. 1015-1019, Vol. 36, No. 4
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Culture-Confirmed Reinfection of a Person with Different Strains of Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Stricto

William T. Golde,1,2,* Barbara Robinson-Dunn,3 Mary Grace Stobierski,3 Daniel Dykhuizen,1 Ing-Nang Wang,1 Vernette Carlson,4 Harlan Stiefel,3 Susan Shiflett,3 and Grant L. Campbell2

State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York1; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado2; and Community Public Health Agency, Michigan Department of Community Health, Lansing,3 and Daggett Medical Clinic, Daggett,4 Michigan

Received 7 August 1997/Returned for modification 10 October 1997/Accepted 23 December 1997

In recent years, the utility of serum-based diagnostic testing for Lyme disease has improved substantially; however, recovery by culture of the bacterium from skin biopsies of suspected patients is still the only definitive laboratory test. Reinfection of patients has been assumed to occur but as yet has not been documented by serial isolates from the same person. We present a case of culture-confirmed reinfection of a patient in Menominee County, Michigan. Borrelia burgdorferi was isolated from the skin punch biopsy specimens during each episode of erythema migrans (EM) and was subjected to molecular strain typing, genetic analysis of two outer surface protein genes, protein profile analysis, and serum antibody response testing. Results show that these isolates are distinct strains of the bacterium and that the two episodes of EM were caused by independent infections. This report describes the documented, culture-confirmed reinfection of a human by two different strains of B. burgdorferi.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Allergy, Department of Medicine, HSCT-16-040, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8161. Phone: (516) 444-2714. Fax: (516) 444-3475. E-mail: wgolde{at}epo.hsc.sunysb.edu.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 1998, p. 1015-1019, Vol. 36, No. 4
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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