Recently, it has been described that basophils play an essential role in antibody-mediated acquired immunity against ticks in mice. However, it is still unknown whether basophil infiltration has any significance in the infestation with ticks in humans. In this report, we have evaluated the infiltration of basophils into human skin lesions of tick bites.

In Scandinavia, tick-borne infections affecting humans include Lyme borreliosis (LB), tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA). Each of these infections can present with unspecific symptoms. In this prospective clinical study, we recruited patients based on two independent inclusion criteria; 1) patients with unspecific symptoms, i.e. fever (≥38.0 ̊C) or a history ...

To the Editor: Rickettsia slovaca is a bacterium that infects Dermacentor marginatus ticks in central and western Europe. First detected in ticks, the bacterium was subsequently identified with genomic amplification by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by sequencing in a skin biopsy from a French patient (1). We describe the first isolation of the organism from a patient. A 79-year...

Powassan virus lineage II (POWV) is an emerging tick-borne neurotropic pathogen, transmitted to humans by the bite of infected Ixodes scapularis ticks. In United States, disease most prevalent in Northeast and upper Midwest occurs mostly during spring summer months when tick activity highest. Some patients with POWV develop severe encephalitis, high mortality. We report case a 42-year-old healt...

1804 Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 11, No. 11, November 2005 County Health Department for further testing and speciation. It was first tested with a fluorescein-conjugated antibody for Neisseria gonorrhoeae; results were negative. A RapID NH panel (Remel, Lenexa, KS, USA) was performed that identified the isolate as M. osloensis with a 99.7% probability. Ideally, the iso...

We describe a man with a febrile illness and an eschar that developed at the site of a tick bite. Rickettsia parkeri was detected and isolated from the eschar. This report represents the second documented case of R. parkeri rickettsiosis in a US serviceman in eastern Virginia.