RESEARCH ARTICLE


A Novel and Simple Method for Laboratory Diagnosis of Relapsing Fever Borreliosis



Christer Larsson , Sven Bergström*
Umeå University, Department of Molecular Biology, Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden


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Creative Commons License
2008 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Umeå University, Department of Molecular Biology, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden; Tel: +46-90-785-6726; Fax: +46-90-772-630; E-mail: sven.bergstrom@molbiol.umu.se


Abstract

Relapsing fever caused by Borrelia bacteria is often obscured by malaria and incorrectly treated. Here a novel method for diagnosis is presented. The method is cheap, simple and requires minimal laboratory material. Despite its simplicity, the method shows surprisingly high sensitivity, detecting concentrations less than 10 bacteria/ml blood.

Keywords: Borrelia, relapsing fever, diagnostics, detection, fever.