Anaplasmosis
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image by: Ormanes Veterinary Clinic
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Eight things you need to know about Anaplasmosis
...Anaplasmosis, otherwise known as Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection. Try saying that three times fast. This is one of the two TBIDs I’ve been unlucky enough to have, but I had never heard of it before my lab results came back with a positive antibody test for it. By the end of this post, you’ll know eight things you didn’t know before about Anaplasmosis.
1. Anaplasmosis is spread by the same ticks that spread Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme Disease). This means that people with Lyme can have a coinfection with Anaplasmosis (and some of them don’t know it).
2. The symptoms of an Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection are: fever, headache, muscle pain, malaise, chills, nausea…
Resources
Move over Lyme: Anaplasmosis, another tick-borne illness, is gaining traction
Anaplasmosis causes many of the same symptoms Lyme disease does, like fatigue and fever — and requires treatment with antibiotics — but typically it does not come with some of the more serious chronic problems that Lyme can cause, like arthritis and inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, according to the Department of Public Health.
Tick-Borne Illness Similar to Lyme Disease Is on the Rise
Experts say cases of anaplasmosis have increased more than 30 percent. Symptoms are similar to those of Lyme disease, but quick treatment can provide relief.
Anaplasmosis: Little-known tick-borne illness on the rise
With anaplasmosis, according to the state’s health department, if an attached tick is removed within 12 hours, the risk of infection is minimal.
Clinical diagnosis and treatment of human granulocytotropic anaplasmosis.
Treatment with doxycycline usually results in rapid improvement and cure. Most patients with HGA have made an uneventful recovery even without specific antibiotic therapy. However, delayed diagnosis in older and immunocompromised patients may place those individuals at risk for an adverse outcome, including death.
Dangerous Ticks
Residents of the Northeast and the Midwest know that ticks can carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. What most don’t know is that the same family of black-legged ticks can also cause other diseases that are even more dangerous.
Death from Transfusion-Transmitted Anaplasmosis, New York, USA, 2017
We report a death from transfusion-transmitted anaplasmosis in a 78-year-old man. The patient died of septic shock 2 weeks after a perioperative transfusion with erythrocytes harboring Anaplasma phagocytophilum. The patient’s blood specimens were positive for A. phagocytophilum DNA beginning 7 days after transfusion; serologic testing remained negative until death.
Eight things you need to know about Anaplasmosis
Anaplasmosis is spread by the same ticks that spread Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme Disease). This means that people with Lyme can have a coinfection with Anaplasmosis (and some of them don’t know it).
The Tick That Bit Me
Anaplasmosis may be confused with other tick-borne rickettsial diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) and ehrlichiosis. All three of these infections can be treated successfully with Doxycycline.
American Lyme Disease Foundation
People exposed to the disease agent often have difficulty being diagnosed because of the non-specific nature of the symptoms. Most experience headaches, fever, chills, myalgia, and malaise that can be confused with other infectious and non-infectious diseases. Rashes are rarely reported by people exposed to HGA. Blood smears may be used to look for characteristic morulae (microcolonies) of A. phagocytophilium in affected blood cells. However, a confirmed diagnosis can only be made using the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) or by immunostaining methods.
LymeDisease.org
The treatment of choice for ehrlichiosis/anaplasmosis is doxycycline, with rifampin recommended in case of treatment failure. In resistant or complicated cases, combination antibiotic therapy may be necessary to eradicate the infection.
CDC
Anaplasmosis is a tickborne disease caused by the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum. It was previously known as human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) and has more recently been called human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA). Anaplasmosis is transmitted to humans by tick bites primarily from the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) and the western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus).
CVBD
Anaplasmosis is caused by several bacterial species of the genus Anaplasma. From their reservoir hosts (e.g. mice, deer, possibly birds) the bacteria are transmitted by ixodid ticks like the Castor Bean tick (Ixodes ricinus), the Deer tick (Ixodes scapularis), the Western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) and the Brown Dog tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus). In general, anaplasmosis leads to milder disease than monocytic ehrlichiosis...
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