Chronic Bartonella
QUOTES from CDC article
Bartonella quintana
Characteristics and Clinical Management
Cédric Foucault,* Philippe Brouqui,* and Didier Raoult*
*Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France
Trench Fever
Trench fever is characterized by attacks of fever that last 1–3 days; are associated with headache, shin pain, and dizziness; and recur every 4–6 days (2,23), although each succeeding attack is usually less severe. The incubation period typically varies from 15 to 25 days but may be reduced to 6 days in experimental infections (3,4). Although trench fever often results in prolonged disability, no deaths have been reported (1,3).
Chronic Bacteremia
Persistent bacteremia has long been associated with B. quintana infection (2,4). Kostrzewski showed that B. quintana was present in the blood of trench fever patients up to 8 years after initial infection (6).
More recently, asymptomatic and prolonged bacteremia was confirmed in 16 of 42 patients with positive blood cultures (12).
Chronic bacteremia persisted for 78 weeks in 1 of those patients, for 53 and 17 weeks in 2 other patients, and for 1 to 8 weeks in the remaining 13.
Intermittent bacteremia was also observed over periods of 4 to 58 weeks.
Full article: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no02/05-0874.htm