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Immune Resistance by Relapsing Fever Spirochetes

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The Pathogenic Spirochetes: strategies for evasion of host immunity and persistence

Abstract

Relapsing fever spirochetosis is a neglected global disease primarily afflicting those in resource-poor countries (Fig. 9.1). Infection with the causative Borrelia spp. spirochetes can be either louse-borne (epidemic) or tick-borne (endemic). Signs and symptoms largely overlap, but vary between the two in important ways that affect their respective mortality. Where mortality with endemic RF is rare (<5 %), epidemic RF can reach up to 40 % mortality in an outbreak (Raoult and Roux 1999). The true global impact of this disease is masked by the non-specific symptoms caused by the spirochetal infection, such that it may be attributed to other pathogens that are prevalent in a population. For instance, in Sudan an outbreak of louse-borne relapsing fever affected 20,000 villagers with a 10 % mortality rate, yet was originally diagnosed as being caused by a hemorrhagic fever virus (Piesman and Schwan 2010). Further complicating our understanding of the potential significance of this disease is the geographical overlap of RF spirochetes with additional febrile episode-inducing illnesses (Fig. 9.1), with one study reporting that 18.2 % of RF borreliosis cases were misdiagnosed as malaria (Nordstrand et al. 2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Bacteriology and Parasitology, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Tulane University Health Sciences, 18703 Three Rivers Rd., Covington, LA, 70433, USA

    Monica E. Embers Ph.D.

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, 219 Harned Hall, 295 E., Lee Boulevard, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA

    Job E. Lopez Ph.D.

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  1. Monica E. Embers Ph.D.
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  2. Job E. Lopez Ph.D.
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tulane University Health Sciences Center, Covington, 70433, Louisiana, USA

    Monica E. Embers

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Embers, M.E., Lopez, J.E. (2012). Immune Resistance by Relapsing Fever Spirochetes. In: Embers, M. (eds) The Pathogenic Spirochetes: strategies for evasion of host immunity and persistence. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5404-5_9

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