Human granulocytic anaplasmosis in Kinmen, an offshore island of Taiwan.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Human granulocytic anaplasmosis, a tick-borne infection caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum, has received scant attention, while scrub typhus, a mite-transmitted disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi, is the most common rickettsiosis in Taiwan. The clinical presentations of both diseases are characterized by undifferentiated fever, headache and malaise. Moreover, both pathogens have been detected in small mammals that serve as hosts for chiggers and ticks in the wild. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether human granulocytic anaplasmosis occurs in Taiwan.

Methodology/principal findings

Blood samples from 274 patients suspected of having scrub typhus in Kinmen, an offshore island of Taiwan, in 2011 and 2012 were retrospectively examined by

SUBMITTER: Tsai KH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6774531 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature