Amanzougaghene Nadia, Fenollar Florence, Sangaré Abdoul Karim, Sissoko Mahamadou S, Doumbo Ogobara K, Raoult Didier, Mediannikov Oleg
Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, IRD, INSERM, AP-HM, URMITE, IHU - Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, France.
University of Bamako, Epidemiology Department of Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Medicine and Odonto-Stomatology, Faculty of Pharmacy (MRTC/DEAP/FMOS-FAPH), Bamako, Mali.
PLoS One. 2017 Sep 20;12(9):e0184621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184621. eCollection 2017.
In poor African countries, where no medical and biological facilities are available, the identification of potential emerging pathogens of concern at an early stage is challenging. Head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, have a short life, feed only on human blood and do not transmit pathogens to their progeny. They are, therefore, a perfect tool for the xenodiagnosis of current or recent human infection. This study assessed the occurrence of bacterial pathogens from head lice collected in two rural villages from Mali, where a high frequency of head lice infestation had previously been reported, using molecular methods. Results show that all 600 head lice, collected from 117 individuals, belonged to clade E, specific to West Africa. Bartonella quintana, the causative agent of trench fever, was identified in three of the 600 (0.5%) head lice studied. Our study also shows, for the first time, the presence of the DNA of two pathogenic bacteria, namely Coxiella burnetii (5.1%) and Rickettsia aeschlimannii (0.6%), detected in human head lice, as well as the DNA of potential new species from the Anaplasma and Ehrlichia genera of unknown pathogenicity. The finding of several Malian head lice infected with B. quintana, C. burnetii, R. aeschlimannii, Anaplasma and Ehrlichia is alarming and highlights the need for active survey programs to define the public health consequences of the detection of these emerging bacterial pathogens in human head lice.
在没有医疗和生物设施的非洲贫困国家，早期识别潜在的、令人担忧的新出现病原体具有挑战性。头虱，即人头虱，寿命短，仅以人血为食，且不会将病原体传播给后代。因此，它们是对当前或近期人类感染进行异体诊断的理想工具。本研究采用分子方法，评估了从马里两个农村村庄收集的头虱中细菌病原体的出现情况，此前曾报道这两个村庄头虱感染频率很高。结果显示，从117个人身上收集的600只头虱均属于E进化枝，该进化枝是西非特有的。在研究的600只头虱中有3只（0.5%）检测到战壕热病原体五日热巴尔通体。我们的研究还首次表明，在人头虱中检测到两种致病细菌的DNA，即伯氏考克斯体（5.1%）和阿氏立克次体（0.6%），以及来自无形体属和埃立克体属的致病性未知的潜在新物种的DNA。发现几只感染了五日热巴尔通体、伯氏考克斯体、阿氏立克次体、无形体和埃立克体的马里头虱令人担忧，并凸显了开展积极调查项目以确定在人头虱中检测到这些新出现的细菌病原体对公共卫生影响的必要性。
