Co-infections in Persons with Early Lyme Disease, New York, USA

Authors

Gary P. Wormser, New York Medical CollegeFollow
Donna McKenna, New York Medical CollegeFollow
Carol Scavarda, New York Medical CollegeFollow
Denise Cooper
Marc El Khoury, New York Medical CollegeFollow
John Nowakowski, New York Medical CollegeFollow
Praveen Sudhindra
Praveen Sudhindra
Alexander Ladenheim, New York Medical College
Guiqing Wang, New York Medical CollegeFollow
Carol L. KarmenFollow
Valerie Demarest
Alan P. Dupuis
Susan J. Wong

DOI

10.3201/eid2504.181509

Journal Title

Emerging Infectious Diseases

First Page

748

Last Page

752

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

April 2019

Department

Medicine

Abstract

In certain regions of New York state, USA, Ixodes scapularis ticks can potentially transmit 4 pathogens in addition to Borrelia burgdorferi: Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti, Borrelia miyamotoi, and the deer tick virus subtype of Powassan virus. In a prospective study, we systematically evaluated 52 adult patients with erythema migrans, the most common clinical manifestation of B. burgdorferi infection (Lyme disease), who had not received treatment for Lyme disease. We used serologic testing to evaluate these patients for evidence of co-infection with any of the 4 other tickborne pathogens. Evidence of co-infection was found for B. microti only; 4-6 patients were co-infected with Babesia microti. Nearly 90% of the patients evaluated had no evidence of co-infection. Our finding of B. microti co-infection documents the increasing clinical relevance of this emerging infection.

Recommended Citation

Wormser, G., McKenna, D., Scavarda, C., Cooper, D., El Khoury, M., Nowakowski, J., Sudhindra, P., Sudhindra, P., Ladenheim, A., Wang, G., Karmen, C., Demarest, V., Dupuis, A., & Wong, S. (2019). Co-infections in Persons with Early Lyme Disease, New York, USA. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 25 (4), 748-752. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2504.181509