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