Serological evidence of louse-borne relapsing fever in northern Kenya

• Published in: Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
• Main Authors: Flavia Reyer, Martyna Olesiuk, Florian Röttgerding, Volker Fingerle, Abdulrahman Adamu, Dan Waithiru, John Njeru, Peter Kraiczy
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2024
• Subjects: Neglected infectious disease; Vector-borne zoonosis; Epidemiology; Spirochetes; Borrelia; Borrelia recurrentis; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2024.102714; https://doaj.org/article/50e08e04b396485ea0f4e38eedd1ec06

Background: Tick- and louse-borne relapsing fever are highly-neglected, vector-borne diseases caused by diverse Borrelia species. Presently, there are no data available on the endemicity of tick- and louse-borne relapsing fever spirochetes in Kenya. Here, we present data of a retrospective study on the seroprevalence of louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) in northern Kenya. Methods: A novel immunoassay, recently established for the diagnosis of LBRF was utilized to screen 2005 blood samples collected from individuals with fever without a source in Turkana County, Kenya between May 2009 and November 2010 for anti-LBRF antibodies. Results: Out of the 2005 sera analyzed, 287 samples (14.3 %) were considered anti-LBRF IgG positive. Subsequent analyses revealed that 87 out of 152 sera randomly selected from these 2005 samples were tested positive (57.2 %) for anti-LBRF IgM antibodies. Most of the IgG and IgM positive samples were from individuals living in northern regions of Turkana County. Conclusion: Our serological finding provides strong evidence for the occurrence of LBRF in Kenya.