Borrelia recurrentis
Borrelia recurrentis is a bacterium of the genus Borrelia. It is the causative agent of relapsing fever lice ( epidemic relapsing fever ). He was the first to discover the cause of a human infectious disease as early as 1868 by Otto Upper Meier.
Morphology
Borrelia recurrentis is like other spirochetes a very portable, screw or spiral -shaped bacterium. The pathogen has a few, relatively large turns. Indicate in-vitro studies have shown that Borrelia are able to change their shape and assume a spherical shape under certain conditions.
The cell wall of Borrelia has a high antigen variability, as we are changing the antigens from generation to generation. This makes it difficult to the human immune system to produce antibodies effective against the pathogen.
Transmission
For Borrelia recurrentis, man is the only host. The pathogen is transmitted by body lice ( Pediculus humanus ) from person to person. The lice become infected by sucking infected blood. The infection of a new host occurs when body fluid of Laus - for example, when scratches and crushing of the insect - arrives in a small skin wound. About blood and lymph then the spirochetes move to other organs. There they multiply and call the typical clinical picture of relapsing fever lice out.
Proof
Pathogen detection is done by molecular biology by the polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) or microscopically in the patient's blood. The preparation is stained by Giemsa or Wright to staining. Survivors pathogens can be detected by means of the dark field or phase contrast microscopy.
Cultivation
As with many other Borrelia species, the cultivation of Borrelia recurrentis difficult and as evidence is unreliable. The pathogen can be in vitro cultivated on special culture media (BSK -II), but occasionally required an incubation period of up to 4 weeks. One difficulty is also the isolation of the pathogen from body fluids (blood ), which can only be achieved in 10-20 % of cases.
Swell
- Spirochetes
- Spirochaetes
- Reportable pathogens