Scientists from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn in cooperation with researchers from the Portuguese Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Lisbon identify and describe pathogens causing tick-borne diseases in humans.

The University of Olsztyn is implementing a project by Dr Małgorzata Dmitryjuk from the Department of Biochemistry “Molecular detection of Candidatus Neoerlichia micurensis bacteria in Ixodes ricinus and Dermacentor reticulatus ticks from north-eastern Poland”. It is part of larger research involving the testing of ticks for human and animal pathogens. 

Candidatus Neoerlichia micurensis bacteria can cause neoerlichiosis. Healthy people cope well with the disease at the time of infection. However, they can carry bacteria and pass them in the blood to other patients during blood transfusions. Those people, if they are immunocompromised, may suffer from severe symptoms. 

The problem is that they are non-specific symptoms, different from person to person and similar to symptoms of other diseases – e.g. fever, cough, joint pain, allergies, thrombotic complications, and even strokes or diarrhea. They are not well described in the scientific literature, because the pathogen has only recently been known and belongs to the so-called new emerging tick-borne pathogens. 

“Doctors, therefore, do not recognize various strange ailments in their patients with neoerlichiosis and treat people in the dark. Fortunately, doxycycline, used in the case of Lyme disease and anaplasmosis that give similar symptoms in the early stages, also brings very good results in the treatment of neoerlichiosis”, says Dr Dmitryjuk. 

However, if the disease is not diagnosed as tick-borne illness, its treatment takes a long time and is sometimes ineffective. A Polish-Portuguese project is aiming to help better understand neorelichiosis. Scientists from Lisbon have extensive experience in bacterial research and have a very well-equipped laboratory. 

Arkadiusz Słomczyński