“Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) is an acute febrile infection that is typically characterizedby one to three fairly regular waves of bacteremia [1,2]. It is caused by Borrelia recurrentis,amotile spirochete that measures 5 to 40 μm in length. The microorganism is transmitted fromperson to person by the human body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus). Disruptions in san-itation during wartime and mass migrations of people provide conditions that favor the propa-gation of body lice and thus the occurrence of outbreaks of the disease [1,3]. LBRF is endemicin East Africa (e.g., Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan) with the highest number of casesobserved in Ethiopia, where it is the seventh most common cause of hospital admission andthe fifth most common cause of death [4,5]. We report here the first case of imported LBRFobserved in Lombardy (northern Italy) in a Somali refugee.”
Source: Spinello Antinori1, Oleg Mediannikov, Mario Corbellino, Romualdo Grande,Carlo Parravicini, Giovanna Bestetti, Erika Longhi, Davide Ricaboni, CyrilleBilé Ehounoud, Florence Fenollar, Didier Raoult, Sara Giordana Rimoldi PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 10(5):e0004522 – May 2016.
See full article: “Louse-Borne Relapsing Fever (Borrelia recurrentis) in a Somali Refugee Arriving in Italy: A Re-emerging Infection in Europe?“