Prevalence of Bartonella infection among patients with fever

Abstract

Bartonella henselae has been associated with an increasing spectrum of clinical syndromes including 
cat scratch disease. The prevalence of Bartonella infection among patients with unexplained fever in 
San Francisco was much greater than has previously been documented. However, out of 29 Japanese 
children with fever of unknown origin, only one had serum IgG antibody to B. henselae. Although 
general prevalences of serum antibodies to some infectious agents in healthy adults are higher than 
those of healthy children, the prevalence of B. henselae infections in Japanese population is not so high 
as expected.