Evidence of exposure to Rickettsia felis in Australian patients

YT Teoh; SF Hii; S Graves; R Rees; J Stenos; RJ Traub

Journal article

Evidence of exposure to Rickettsia felis in Australian patients

YT Teoh, SF Hii, S Graves, R Rees, J Stenos, RJ Traub

One Health | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2016.06.001

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Abstract

Rickettsia felis is an emerging zoonosis, causing flea-borne spotted fever (FBSF). Serological diagnosis is typically confounded by cross-reactivity with typhus group rickettsiae and prior to the development of specific serological methods, cases of FBSF in Australia were misdiagnosed.Patient sera tested between August 2010 and December 2013 and known to be seropositive to R. typhi by immunofluorescence antibody testing (IFAT) were subsequently retested against R. felis using an R. felis-specific IFAT. Sera of 49 patients were of a sufficient quality to be included in re-analysis. A classification of FBSF and murine typhus (MT) was attributed to fourteen and seven patients respectively, base..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Thomas Teoh Author

Sze Fui Hii Author

John Stenos Author

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council (LP130100565) in partnership with Bayer Animal Health and the Australian Rickettsial Reference Laboratory. The authors would like to thank Dr. Gemma Vincent and Ms. Chelsea Nguyen (Scientist Officers at the ARRL) for rickettsia cell culture, serological assay training and IFAT validation.