For our Bartonella textbook we are trying to see the percent of infected people in different nations. EU sample nations were about 20% and Rio the same. 1900 years of European graves about 18%. Africa and Asia below.
ALL THESE WERE LOOKING AT 1-2 SPECIES. NOT THE 23 IN HUMANS.
**One study reported antibody positive Bartonella species in about 39% of Africans.
**And Bartonella species are positive in 39% of people living in Asia.
********* In talking to Galaxy Diagnostics, the leading research lab in the world, this was taught….*********
Seroprevalence data is nearly all being generated by IFA testing (still considered the Gold standard) 30 years after introduction of Bh [henselae] and Bq [quintana] IFA assays.
So the good news is that most laboratories are using the same IFA technique and many are using the same IFA antigens produced commercially from Focus Laboratories.
The predominant factors that influence seroprevalence results are the cutoff value used by the laboratory for seroreactivity- initially based upon cat scratch disease patient sera for Bh [henselae].
The environment in the context of vector exposures- sandflies, fleas, lice and others in conjunction [How many of the 12 biting insects with Bartonella are in a location?] with the reservoir hosts (cats, dogs, rats, cows, etc) will determine Bartonella antibody prevalence. [For example, an area with huge numbers of stray and feral cats with flea density, explains why Egypt has so much Bartonella henselae].
The goal with [the Galaxy Patented Media] BAPGM enrichment culture and dPCR is to prove that the organism is present in the patient on a microbial DNA detection basis.
[This allows an optimal detection of DNA over 90% with three draws in a week].
