Serological review of Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana infection among Malaysian patients with unknown causes of febrile illnesses

Hou, S. L. and Idris, Nuryana and Tay, Soon Tzeh (2022) Serological review of Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana infection among Malaysian patients with unknown causes of febrile illnesses. Tropical Biomedicine, 39 (3). pp. 328-331. ISSN 2521-9855, DOI https://doi.org/10.47665/tb.39.3.004.

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Abstract

Limited information is available on human exposure to Bartonella infection, i.e., Bartone!!a henselae (causative agent of cat scratch disease) and Bartonella quintana (causative agent of trench fever) in West Malaysia. This study reports a review of serological findings obtained from patients attending to a teaching hospital in Klang Valley, Malaysia. An indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) was used to determine IgG and IgM antibody titers against B. henselae and B. quintana. In a pilot study conducted between 2013-2015, IgG antibodies against Bartonella spp. (either B. quintana and B. henselae) were detected in 14 (36.8%) of 38 patients who were clinically suspected of rickettsial infections, while IgM antibody was detected in 4 (10.5%) patients. This has prompted us to investigate the serologic responses of patients who were clinically suspected of other febrile causes besides rickettsia! infection. Of the 59 serum samples analysed in a follow-up investigation, Bartonella IgG antibodies were detected from 7 (11.9%) patients, of which 5 (27.8%) and 2 (18.2%) patients were clinically suspected of rickettsia! infection (n=18) and dengue (n=11), respectively. None of the sera obtained from the leptospirosis (n=10), legionellosis (n=10) and mycoplasma infection (n=10) groups were seropositive to Bartonella spp. The review of Bartonella serological findings in this study highlights that Bartonella infection is not uncommon and should be considered as one of the causes for febrile illness in Malaysia.

Item Type: Article
Funders: Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC), Malaysia [SF014-2015], PPP fund [PG255-2016A]
Uncontrolled Keywords: Bartonella henselae; Bartonella quintana; IFA; Febrile illness
Subjects: R Medicine
Divisions: Faculty of Medicine
Depositing User: Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim
Date Deposited: 25 Sep 2023 04:16
Last Modified: 25 Sep 2023 04:16
URI: http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/40901

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