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Unmasking Bartonella henselae infection in the shadows of long COVID thanks to clinical metagenomics

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Abstract

The diagnosis of long COVID often relies on symptoms post-COVID-19, occasionally lacking biological evidence. This case study illustrates how investigating long COVID uncovered an underlying bartonellosis through clinical metagenomics. Following mild COVID-19, a 26-year-old woman experienced persistent symptoms during 5 months, including axillary adenopathy. Pathological examination, 16 S rRNA PCR, and clinical metagenomic analysis were done on an adenopathy biopsy. The latter revealed Bartonella henselae DNA and RNA. Treatment with clarithromycin improved symptoms. This case underscores the relevance of clinical metagenomics in diagnosing hidden infections. Post-COVID symptoms warrant thorough investigation, and bartonellosis should be considered in polyadenopathy cases, regardless of a recent history of cat or flea exposures.

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Data availability

Raw metagenomic data may contain human genome information and are therefore not available. The other relevant data is provided in the manuscript.

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Funding

This work did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Virology Department, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France

    Aurélien Aubry, Jérôme Le Goff & Maud Salmona

  2. Resistant Infectious Agents and Chemotherapy Research Unit, AGIR UR4294, Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, 80000, France

    Aurélien Aubry

  3. Clinical Immunology Department, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France

    Emilie Corvilain

  4. Parasitology-Mycology Department, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France

    Théo Ghelfenstein-Ferreira

  5. Bacteriology Department, Saint Louis Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France

    François Camelena & Béatrice Berçot

  6. University Paris Cité, INSERM 1137, IAME, Paris, France

    François Camelena & Béatrice Berçot

  7. Pathology Department, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France

    Véronique Meignin

  8. University Paris Cité, Inserm U976, INSIGHT Team, Paris, France

    Jérôme Le Goff & Maud Salmona

Authors
  1. Aurélien Aubry
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  2. Emilie Corvilain
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  4. François Camelena
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  5. Véronique Meignin
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  6. Béatrice Berçot
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  7. Jérôme Le Goff
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  8. Maud Salmona
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Contributions

AA : Data analysis, writing - original draft ; EC : Conceptualization, data analysis, writing – review & editing ; TGF : Data analysis, writing – review & editing ; FC : Data analysis, writing – review & editing ; VM : Data analysis, writing – review & editing ; BB : Data analysis, writing – review & editing ;JLG : Data analysis, writing – review & editing ; MS : Conceptualization, data analysis, writing – review & editing, supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aurélien Aubry.

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An informed consent from the patient included in the article was obtained and this report does not contain any personal information that could lead to her identification.

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There are no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Aubry, A., Corvilain, E., Ghelfenstein-Ferreira, T. et al. Unmasking Bartonella henselae infection in the shadows of long COVID thanks to clinical metagenomics. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-024-04801-2

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