Louse-borne relapsing fever (Borrelia recurrentis) in an Eritrean refugee arriving in Switzerland, August 2015

D Goldenberger; G J Claas; C Bloch-Infanger; T Breidthardt; B Suter; M Martínez; A Neumayr; A Blaich; A Egli; M Osthoff

doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES2015.20.32.21204

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Louse-borne relapsing fever (Borrelia recurrentis) in an Eritrean refugee arriving in Switzerland, August 2015
D Goldenberger^1,2 , G J Claas^2,3 , C Bloch-Infanger³ , T Breidthardt⁴ , B Suter⁵ , M Martínez⁵ , A Neumayr⁶ , A Blaich¹ , A Egli¹ , M Osthoff³
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Affiliations: ¹ Division of Clinical Microbiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland ² These authors contributed equally to this work. ³ Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland ⁴ Division of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland ⁵ Division of Diagnostic Haematology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland ⁶ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland

Correspondence:
D Goldenberger
daniel.goldenberger usb.ch
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Citation style for this article: Goldenberger D, Claas G J, Bloch-Infanger C, Breidthardt T, Suter B, Martínez M, Neumayr A, Blaich A, Egli A, Osthoff M. Louse-borne relapsing fever (Borrelia recurrentis) in an Eritrean refugee arriving in Switzerland, August 2015. Euro Surveill. 2015;20(32):pii=21204. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES2015.20.32.21204 Received: 16 Jul 2015

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Abstract

We report an imported case of louse-borne relapsing fever in a young adult Eritrean refugee who presented with fever shortly after arriving in Switzerland. Analysis of blood smears revealed spirochetes identified as Borrelia recurrentis by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We believe that louse-borne relapsing fever may be seen more frequently in Europe as a consequence of a recent increase in refugees from East Africa travelling to Europe under poor hygienic conditions in confined spaces.