Detection of Bartonella quintana in African Body and Head Lice

• DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.13-0707
• Publication Date: 2014-06-17T04:06:43Z
• Authors: Abdoul Karim Sangaré; Amina Boutellis; Rezak Drali; Cristina Socolovschi; Stephen C. Barker; Georges Diatta; Christophe Rogier; Marie-Marie Olive; Ogobara K. Doumbo; Didier Raoult
• Keywords: DNA, Bacterial; Male; 2405 Parasitology; Polymerase Chain Reaction; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Bartonella quintana; Virology; Prevalence; Animals; Humans; Child; Poverty; Phylogeny; Pediculus; 2725 Infectious Diseases; Lice Infestations; Trench Fever; 3. Good health; Molecular Typing; Infectious Diseases; Africa; 2406 Virology; Parasitology; DNA, Intergenic; Female

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.