Roux V, Raoult D
Unité des Rickettsies, CNRS UPRES-A 6020, Faculté de Médecine, 13385 Marseille, France.
J Clin Microbiol. 1999 Mar;37(3):596-9. doi: 10.1128/JCM.37.3.596-599.1999.
Body lice are vectors of three bacteria which cause human disease: Rickettsia prowazekii, the agent of epidemic typhus; Bartonella quintana, the agent of trench fever; and Borrelia recurrentis, the agent of relapsing fever. A recrudescence of body lice is being observed as the numbers of individuals living under social conditions which predispose individuals to infestation have increased. Because this phenomenon may lead to the reemergence of infections transmitted by body lice, we aimed to assess the occurrence and prevalence of the three agents described above in more than 600 body lice collected from infested individuals in the African countries of Congo, Zimbabwe, and Burundi, in France, in Russia, and in Peru. The presence of the three bacteria in each louse was determined by specific PCR amplification, and the identities of the organisms detected were confirmed by determination of the nucleotide base sequences of the amplification products. Using this approach, we were able to confirm the presence of R. prowazekii in lice collected from refugees in Burundi, among whom typhus was epidemic, and the presence of B. quintana in lice collected from all locations except the Congo. B. recurrentis was never found. Molecular approaches are convenient tools for the detection and identification of bacterial DNA in body lice and for the epidemiological study of louse-borne bacteria from countries where no medical and biological laboratory facilities are available.
普氏立克次体，即流行性斑疹伤寒的病原体；五日热巴尔通体，即战壕热的病原体；以及回归热疏螺旋体，即回归热的病原体。随着生活在易受感染社会环境中的人数增加，体虱再度出现。由于这一现象可能导致体虱传播感染的再度出现，我们旨在评估上述三种病原体在刚果、津巴布韦和布隆迪等非洲国家、法国、俄罗斯和秘鲁从受感染个体身上采集的600多只体虱中的发生情况和流行程度。通过特异性PCR扩增确定每只虱子中这三种细菌的存在，并通过测定扩增产物的核苷酸碱基序列来确认检测到的生物体的身份。采用这种方法，我们能够确认在布隆迪难民身上采集的虱子中存在普氏立克次体，当时斑疹伤寒在这些难民中流行，并且在除刚果以外的所有地点采集的虱子中都存在五日热巴尔通体。从未发现回归热疏螺旋体。分子方法是检测和鉴定体虱中细菌DNA以及对来自没有医疗和生物实验室设施国家的虱传细菌进行流行病学研究的便捷工具。
