Emergence of a New Pathogenic Ehrlichia Species, Wisconsin and Minnesota, 2009

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 365; no. 5; pp. 422 - 429
• Main Authors: Pritt, Bobbi S, Sloan, Lynne M, Johnson, Diep K. Hoang, Munderloh, Ulrike G, Paskewitz, Susan M, McElroy, Kristina M, McFadden, Jevon D, Binnicker, Matthew J, Neitzel, David F, Liu, Gongping, Nicholson, William L, Nelson, Curtis M, Franson, Joni J, Martin, Scott A, Cunningham, Scott A, Steward, Christopher R, Bogumill, Kay, Bjorgaard, Mary E, Davis, Jeffrey P, McQuiston, Jennifer H, Warshauer, David M, Wilhelm, Mark P, Patel, Robin, Trivedi, Vipul A, Eremeeva, Marina E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Waltham, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 04.08.2011
• Subjects: Animals; Bacteria; Biological and medical sciences; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Diagnostic tests; Disease control; DNA; Doxycycline; Ehrlichia - classification; Ehrlichia - genetics; Ehrlichia - isolation & purification; Ehrlichiosis; Ehrlichiosis - microbiology; Epidemiology; Female; Fever; General aspects; Genetic analysis; Headache; Humans; Immunoglobulins; Infections; Ixodes - microbiology; Liver; Lymphopenia; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Minnesota; Miscellaneous; Nucleotide sequence; Patients; Phylogeny; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Public health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Species; Thrombocytopenia; Wisconsin; Young Adult; Zoonoses; Zoonoses - microbiology; Minnesota; United States; North America; Wisconsin; America; Atlanta Georgia; United States > US; Russia; Ehrlichiaceae; Pathogenesis; Ehrlichieae; Epidemiology; Rickettsiales; 2009; Medicine; Pathogenic; Emergence; Bacteria; New species; Ehrlichia; Public health
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1010493

A newly discovered ehrlichia species closely related to E. muris was identified as a cause of illness in three people in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota. The syndrome is described, and the likely vector identified. Ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis are tickborne zoonoses caused by obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria in the family Anaplasmataceae. 1 Symptoms typically include fever, myalgia, and headache, with rash in rare instances. Severe disease may be associated with gastrointestinal, renal, respiratory, and central nervous system involvement and, in rare cases, death. In the United States, ehrlichiosis in humans is caused primarily by infection with Ehrlichia chaffeensis, which infects monocytes, and less commonly by E. ewingii, which infects granulocytes. Anaplasma phagocytophilum is closely related to the ehrlichiae and causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis. 1 , 2 E. ewingii and E. chaffeensis are transmitted to humans by the bite . . .