Ecoepidemiology of rickettsial infection in rodents, ectoparasites and humans in northeastern Antioquia, Colombia
Abstract
Introduction: Rickettsia spp. are tick, flea or lice-borne pathogenic bacterium, usually carried by rodents. In the last decade three outbreaks of rickettsial disease including fatalities, occurred in the provinces of Antioquia and Córdoba in northwestern Colombia.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to perform an ecological and epidemiological description of the Rickettsia spp infection in the recently affected region of Colombia.
Materials and methods: Samples were obtained from 354 rodents and their parasites captured in the municipalities of Apartadó, Turbo and Necoclí. Likewise, 220 human sera were also collected, for detection of infection by Rickettsia spp.
Results: Indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) revealed that 130 (43%) of the rodents and 53 (24%)of the humans produced antibodies to Rickettsia spp. Additionally, rickettsial DNA was amplified by PCR from 23 (6.8%) rodent liver samples using primers directed to the genus specific gltA gene. While gltA sequences from rodent samples exhibited a 98.7% similitude with R. prowazekii, a sequence amplified from larvae of Amblyomma sp exhibited identities of >99% similarity with R. tamurae.
Conclusion: These results demonstrate the presence of rickettsia in rodents, ectoparasites and humans throughout the municipalities studied.
Downloads
Some similar items:
- Constanza Pardo, Ricardo Cendales, Survival analysis of cervical cancer patients , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Raúl Murillo, Ricardo Cendales, Carolina Wiesner, Marion Piñeros, Sandra Tovar, Effectiveness of cytology-based cervical cancer screening in the Colombian health system , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Sandra Lorena Girón, Julio César Mateus, Fabián Méndez, Impact of an open waste disposal site on the occurrence of respiratory symptoms and on health care costs of children , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- José Joaquín Carvajal, Ligia Inés Moncada, Mauricio Humberto Rodríguez, Ligia del Pilar Pérez, Víctor Alberto Olano, Characterization of Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894) (Diptera:Culicidae) larval habitats near the Amazon River in Colombia , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Andrés Páez, Gloria Rey, Carlos Agudelo, Alvaro Dulce, Edgar Parra, Hernando Díaz-Granados, Damaris Heredia, Luis Polo, Outbreak of urban rabies transmitted by dogs in Santa Marta, northern Colombia , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Patricia Escobar, Katherine Paola Luna, Indira Paola Hernández, César Mauricio Rueda, María Magdalena Zorro, Simon L. Croft, In vitro susceptibility of Trypanosoma cruzi strains from Santander, Colombia, to hexadecylphosphocholine (miltefosine), nifurtimox and benznidazole , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Gustavo Pradilla, Julio César Mantilla, Reynaldo Badillo, Human rabies encephalitis by a vampire bat bite in an urban area of Colombia , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 2 (2009)
- Mauricio Beltrán, María Cristina Navas, María Patricia Arbeláez, Jorge Donado, Sergio Jaramillo, Fernando De la Hoz, Cecilia Estrada, Lucía del Pilar Cortés, Amalia de Maldonado, Gloria Rey, Seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus infection in a population of multiply-transfused patients in Colombia , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 2 (2009)
- Rosa Magdalena Uscátegui, Adriana M. Correa, Jaime Carmona-Fonseca, Changes in retinol, hemoglobin and ferritin concentrations in Colombian children with malaria , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 2 (2009)
- Claudia M.E. Romero-Vivas, Luis Eduardo Castro, Lila Visbal, Ana María Santos, Esther Díaz, Cutaneous myiasis by Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Díptera Calliphoridae) in Hospital Universidad del Norte, Soledad, Atlántico , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 1 (2009)
| Article metrics | |
|---|---|
| Abstract views | |
| Galley vies | |
| PDF Views | |
| HTML views | |
| Other views | |
