Prevalence and genetic diversity of Anaplasma and Ehrlichia in ticks and domesticated animals in Suizhou County, Hubei Province, China.

Anaplasma and Ehrlichia are tick-borne bacterial pathogens that cause anaplasmoses and ehrlichioses in humans and animals. In this study, we examined the prevalence of Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species in ticks and domesticated animals in Suizhou County, Hubei Province in the central China. We used PCR amplification and DNA sequencing of the 16S rRNA, groEL, and gltA genes to analyze. We collected 1900 ticks, including 1981 Haemaphysalis longicornis and 9 Rhipicephalus microplus, 159 blood samples of goats (n = 152), cattle (n = 4), and dogs (n = 3) from May to August of 2023. PCR products demonstrated that Anaplasma bovis, Anaplasma capra, and an Ehrlichia species were detected in the H. longicornis with the minimum infection rates (MIR) of 1.11%, 1.32%, and 0.05%, respectively; A. bovis, A. capra, and unnamed Anaplasma sp. were detected in goats with an infection rate of 26.31%, 1.31% and 1.97%, respectively. Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species were not detected from cattle, dogs and R. microplus ticks. The genetic differences in the groEL gene sequences of the Anaplasma in the current study were large, whereas the 16S rRNA and gltA gene sequences were less disparate. This study shows that ticks and goats in Suizhou County, Hubei Province carry multiple Anaplasma species and an Ehrlichia species, with relatively higher infection rate of A. bovis in goats. Our study indicates that multiple Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species exist in ticks and goats in the central China with potential to cause human infection.

[Evaluation on the highly active anti-retroviral therapy in 181 AIDS patients].

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical effect under highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) in AIDS patients and for improving the curative effect and prognosis. METHODS: Epidemiological method was used from five aspects to describe the post-treatment clinical symptoms of 181 AIDS patients in Suizhou, and to evaluate the change of virus load and immune function of 79 AIDS patients. Data was doubly recorded by Epi Data and database was set up by SPSS 13.0 for analysis. RESULTS: The effective powers of anomal-fever, cough, diarrhoea, lymphadenectasis, weight drop, erythra, mycotic infection were 81.39%, 85.00%, 84.62%, 81.89%, 82.86%, 66.07% and 45.45% respectively. CD4+ T lymphocyte count rose obviously after treatment, with an averag of 276 x 10(6) cells/ml (65 x 10(6)-824 x 10(6) cells/ml), an 129 x 10(6) cells/ml increase in three months and was 294 x 10(6) cells/ml (102 x 10(6)-750 x 10(6) cells/ml) in six months. The count change of CD4+ T lymphocyte between 3 months and 6 months did not show sigificant difference. The number of deaths among drug withdrawals was 14, with a case fatality rate as 29.79%; while the number of deaths among non-drug withdrawals was 3, with the case fatality rate as 2.24%. CONCLUSION: Results through this study showed that HAART could obviously improve the clinical symptom of AIDS patients, and to increase the number of virus load. Improving the compliance could also reduce the case fatality rate.