Prevalence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in humans in Belgium for the period 2013-2016.
Ticks are vectors for a broad range of pathogens of medical and veterinary importance, such as Borrelia spp., Babesia spp., Anaplasma spp., Rickettsia spp., Bartonella spp. and the tick-borne encephalitis virus. The Gram-negative bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum is present worldwide, including Belgium where numerous patients were shown to harbour antibodies against this pathogen as recorded by the Belgian National Reference Center (NRC) for Anaplasma. The clinical presentation of human granulocytic anaplasmosis is an acute, febrile, nonspecific, flu-like illness. Leukopenia, thrombocytopenia and increased hepatic transaminase activities are commonly present early in the disease. Diagnosis early in the course of infection relies on the detection of antibodies or of the bacterium in the blood, as is performed at the NRC for Anaplasma, part of the Clinical Laboratory of the Queen Astrid Military Hospital in Brussels, Belgium. In this article, we discuss diagnostic test results as well as recent clinical and demographic characteristics of patients whose samples were analyzed by the NRC for Anaplasma in a four-year period (2013-2016).
['Hing|Mony|M|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9670-3477', 'Van Den Bossche|Dorien|D|', 'Lernout|Tinne|T|', 'Cochez|Christel|C|', 'Pirnay|Jean-Paul|JP|', 'Heuninckx|Walter|W|']
D041081:Anaplasma phagocytophilum D000712:Anaplasmosis D000818:Animals D000906:Antibodies D001530:Belgium D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques D003710:Demography D019468:Disease Management D004199:Disease Vectors D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D015995:Prevalence D012621:Seasons D063189:Symptom Assessment D013987:Ticks
Anaplasma phagocytophilum human granulocytic anaplasmosis diagnostic testing clinical management