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Detection of Bartonella quintana in African body and head lice
Abdoul Karim Sangaré1, Amina Boutellis1, Rezak Drali1
1Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes (URMITE), Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR)63, 7278 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) 198, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) 1095, University of Aix, Marseille, France; IRD, Campus Commun Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD)-IRD of Hann, Dakar, Senegal; Parasitology Section, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Pasteur Institute of Madagascar, Ambohitrakely, Madagascar; University of Bamako, Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC)/Département d'Epidemiologie des Affections Parasitaires (DEAP)/Faculté de Médecine de Pharmacie et d'Odontostomatologie (FMPOS)-Unité Mixte Internationale (UMI)3189, Bamako, Mali.
Abstract:
Currently, the body louse is the only recognized vector of Bartonella quintana, an organism that causes trench fever. In this work, we investigated the prevalence of this bacterium in human lice in different African countries. We tested 616 head lice and 424 body lice from nine African countries using real-time polymerase chain reaction targeting intergenic spacer region 2 and specific B. quintana genes. Overall, B. quintana DNA was found in 54% and 2% of body and head lice, respectively. Our results also show that there are more body lice positive for B. quintana in poor countries, which was determined by the gross domestic product, than in wealthy areas (228/403 versus 0/21, P < 0.001). A similar finding was obtained for head lice (8/226 versus 2/390, P = 0.007). Our findings suggest that head lice in Africa may be infected by B. quintana when patients live in poor economic conditions and are also exposed to body lice.
