Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis, South Korea, 2013

Abstract

We report a patient with human granulocytic anaplasmosis in South Korea. The patient had fever and thrombocytopenia. Human granulocytic anaplasmosis was confirmed by seroconversion, PCR, and sequence analysis for Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Morulae were observed in the cultured HL-60 cells inoculated with blood from the patient.

Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis as a Cause of Febrile Illness in Korea Since at Least 2006

“…Phylogenetic trees comparing the five human A. phagocytophilum strains in this study with various strains from Korea and other countries are shown in Figure 1. In comparison with the Korean strains ( Figure 1A), the five strains in this study were not identical, but closely related to each other and to the first human isolate in Korea (Korea/Gangwon/2013, KF805344) 21 ; a group of strains, which included two of the three KWD strains that were relatively distant from the five strains of this study, were also noted ( Figure 1A). In comparison with the strains from other countries, the five strains of this study were close to a human isolate from the United States and were relatively distant from the five strains from China, Japan, and Italy, which included two of the three deer isolates and a muntjac isolate ( Figure 1B).…”

“…HGA cases have been reported in China, 13 Japan, 14 and Korea, 21 but few retrospective cases have been reported in Asia. Among 70 febrile patients, five HGA cases were confirmed over a 10-year period at a hospital in Busan.…”

“…Forces Korea soldier in 2000, 20 and only one microbiologically confirmed HGA case with clinical description has been reported in 2014. 21 Because there have been no laboratories capable of providing HGA or HME diagnostics until 2014 and Korean clinicians have not been aware of HGA or HME, undiagnosed cases must have existed previously in South Korea.…”

Serological and molecular detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in horses reared in Korea

“…A case of HGA was recently reported in Korea (Kim et al 2014). Although there is no evidence of transmission from animals to humans, A. phagocytophilum is transmitted to horses and humans by the same tick species.…”

“…Several Korean studies have reported the presence of A. phagocytophilum in a variety of mammals, including rodents, dogs, and cattle (Chae et al 2008b;Jung et al 2012;Kang et al 2013), and a case of HGA has recently been documented in Korea (Kim et al 2014). In recent decades, there has been a gradual increase in temperatures worldwide due to global warming, and this climate change is expected to influence the abundance and distribution of ticks (Leger et al 2013).…”