Bartonella species cause chronic and intermittent intra-erythrocytic bacteremia and infect endothelial cells of both incidental and natural reservoir hosts. The establishment of chronic, stealth infection is achieved by evasion of innate immune responses.
In humans, Bartonella species have been detected from sick patients presented with diverse disease manifestations, including cat scratch disease, trench fever, bacillary angiomatosis, endocarditis, polyarthritis, or granulomatous inflammatory disease.
An international team of scientists, led by those at the Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA), collected blood from 500 apparently healthy Brazilian voluntary blood donors in a cross sectional study. Bartonella species infection from the bloodstream was detected based on enrichment blood culture in a liquid growth medium (Bartonella alpha-Proteobacteria growth medium-BAPGM), coupled with isolation in solid medium. Bartonella-specific DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by DNA sequencing to confirm species identification. Of the ten Bartonella species that are believed to produce infection in humans, the most commonly encountered are B. henselae, B. quintana, and B. bacilliformis. The latter causes Oroya fever and Verruga peruana.
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| Electron micrograph of Bartonella henelae, Gram-negative bacteria that causes cat scratch fever |
Source: Prokaryotes
