Rickettsia felis Infection in Febrile Patients, Western Kenya, 2007–2010 - Vol. 18 No. 2 - February 2012 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

full-text:
Rickettsia felis Infection in Febrile Patients, Western Kenya, 2007–2010 - Vol. 18 No. 2 - February 2012 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

Volume 18, Number 2—February 2012

Dispatch

Rickettsia felis Infection in Febrile Patients, Western Kenya, 2007–2010

Article Contents

• The Study
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Figure 1
• Figure 2
• Table 1
• Table 2
• Suggested Citation

Alice N. Maina, Darryn L. Knobel, Ju Jiang, Jo Halliday, Daniel R. Feikin, Sarah Cleaveland, Zipporah Ng’ang’a, Muthoni Junghae, Robert F. Breiman, Allen L. Richards, and M. Kariuki Njenga 

Author affiliations: Author affiliations: Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya (A.N. Maina, Z. Ng’ang’a); Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kisumu, Kenya (A.N. Maina, D.L. Knobel),; University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, South Africa (D.L. Knobel); Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA (A.L. Richards, J. Jiang); University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (J. Halliday, S. Cleaveland); US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nairobi (M. Junghae, D.R. Feikin, R.F. Breiman, M.K. Njenga)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract

To determine previous exposure and incidence of rickettsial infections in western Kenya during 2007–2010, we conducted hospital-based surveillance. Antibodies against rickettsiae were detected in 57.4% of previously collected serum samples. In a 2008–2010 prospective study, Rickettsia felis DNA was 2.2× more likely to be detected in febrile than in afebrile persons.

Rickettsioses are a major human health problem in many parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa (1,2). Awareness of rickettsiae as causes of public health problems has been increasing; several novel or emerging diseases caused by these pathogens have been recognized. In Kenya, recent reports have documented human infections with Rickettsia conorii (3,4) and R. felis (5) and tick infection with R. africae (6). Our objectives were to assess previous human exposure to rickettsiae and to determine the incidence of rickettsial infections among febrile and afebrile persons in western Kenya.

Figure 1. Locations of villages (brown shading in inset map) in Asembo area of western Kenya where the study was conducted, January 2007 through October 2008. Used with permission of Kenya Medical...