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Serological evidence of Francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern Kenya, 2014–2015

Tularaemia is a highly contagious infectious zoonosis caused by the bacterial agent Francisella tularensis. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of antibodies to F. tularensis in febrile patients in northeastern Kenya. During 2014–2015, 730 patients were screened for anti-F. tularen...

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Autores principales: Njeru, J., Tomaso, H., Mertens, K., Henning, K., Wareth, G., Heller, R., Kariuki, S., Fèvre, E.M., Neubauer, H., Pletz, M.W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5498284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28721222
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nmni.2017.05.015
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author Njeru, J.
Tomaso, H.
Mertens, K.
Henning, K.
Wareth, G.
Heller, R.
Kariuki, S.
Fèvre, E.M.
Neubauer, H.
Pletz, M.W.
author_facet Njeru, J.
Tomaso, H.
Mertens, K.
Henning, K.
Wareth, G.
Heller, R.
Kariuki, S.
Fèvre, E.M.
Neubauer, H.
Pletz, M.W.
author_sort Njeru, J.
collection PubMed
description Tularaemia is a highly contagious infectious zoonosis caused by the bacterial agent Francisella tularensis. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of antibodies to F. tularensis in febrile patients in northeastern Kenya. During 2014–2015, 730 patients were screened for anti-F. tularensis antibodies using a combination of ELISA and Western blot. Twenty-seven (3.7%) individuals were positive for F. tularensis. Tularaemia was not suspected by the treating clinicians in any of them. Our results suggest that tularaemia may be present in Kenya but remain unreported, and emphasizes the need for local clinicians to broaden their diagnostic repertoire when evaluating patients with undifferentiated febrile illness.
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spelling pubmed-54982842017-07-18 Serological evidence of Francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern Kenya, 2014–2015 Njeru, J. Tomaso, H. Mertens, K. Henning, K. Wareth, G. Heller, R. Kariuki, S. Fèvre, E.M. Neubauer, H. Pletz, M.W. New Microbes New Infect Original Article Tularaemia is a highly contagious infectious zoonosis caused by the bacterial agent Francisella tularensis. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of antibodies to F. tularensis in febrile patients in northeastern Kenya. During 2014–2015, 730 patients were screened for anti-F. tularensis antibodies using a combination of ELISA and Western blot. Twenty-seven (3.7%) individuals were positive for F. tularensis. Tularaemia was not suspected by the treating clinicians in any of them. Our results suggest that tularaemia may be present in Kenya but remain unreported, and emphasizes the need for local clinicians to broaden their diagnostic repertoire when evaluating patients with undifferentiated febrile illness. Elsevier 2017-06-03 /pmc/articles/PMC5498284/ /pubmed/28721222 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nmni.2017.05.015 Text en © 2017 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Original Article
Njeru, J.
Tomaso, H.
Mertens, K.
Henning, K.
Wareth, G.
Heller, R.
Kariuki, S.
Fèvre, E.M.
Neubauer, H.
Pletz, M.W.
Serological evidence of Francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern Kenya, 2014–2015
title Serological evidence of Francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern Kenya, 2014–2015
title_full Serological evidence of Francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern Kenya, 2014–2015
title_fullStr Serological evidence of Francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern Kenya, 2014–2015
title_full_unstemmed Serological evidence of Francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern Kenya, 2014–2015
title_short Serological evidence of Francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern Kenya, 2014–2015
title_sort serological evidence of francisella tularensis in febrile patients seeking treatment at remote hospitals, northeastern kenya, 2014–2015
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5498284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28721222
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nmni.2017.05.015
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