ISSN: 2378-3656 Gibson et al. Clin Med Rev Case Rep 2020, 7:302 DOI: 10.23937/2378-3656/1410302 Volume 7 | Issue 3 Clinical Medical Reviews Open Access and Case Reports CASE REPORT Trench Fever in Texas E Jane Gibson, MD1,2, Tuyet T Pham, MD1,2, Tove M Goldson, MD, PhD1,2 and Samuel N Forjuoh, MD, MPH, DrPH1,2* 1Department of Family & Community Medicine, Baylor Scott & White Health, Texas, USA 2Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, Temple, Texas, USA Check for *Corresponding author: Samuel N. Forjuoh, MD, MPH, DrPH, Department of Family & Community updates Medicine, Baylor Scott & White Health, Santa Fe - Century Square Bldg., Room 107, 1402 West Ave H, Temple, TX 76504, USA, Tel: 254-771-7695, Fax: 254-771-8493 perlipidemia, arthralgias, cervicalgia, chronic back pain, Abstract chronic kidney disease stage 3, and gastroesophageal Trench Fever is caused by Bartonella quintana, a small fastidious gram-negative rod organism carried by the reflux disease presented to the emergency department body louse. We report a case of a 62-year-old woman with complaints of ongoing fever and malaise for the who was admitted to a hospital in central Texas for a previous two weeks. She tried taking Tylenol at home two-week history of fever and malaise. She was initially with minimal relief. She also complained of lethargy, treated for Q fever which is usually caused by inhaling body aches, chills, and a mild intermittent cough during dust particles contaminated by infected animals, given that she was regularly around farm animals, but when this time. She denied vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal her extensive infectious disease panel came back neg- pain, dysuria, sore throat, neck pain, confusion, or in- ative, the search was expanded and she was found to creased urinary frequency. have positive B. quintana serology titers. She recovered on Doxycycline therapy for 14 days and discharged to She had seen her primary care provider in the clinic continue it for 4 more weeks as outpatient and to follow on day 1 of her illness and was diagnosed with a pos- up in the clinic. sible upper respiratory infection vs. sinus infection vs. Keywords the flu. She was instructed to take Cefuroxime and if Bartonella quintana, Body louse, Q fever, Quintan fever, she did not improve to stop treatment in 2-3 days. On Trench fever day 7 with this antibiotic treatment, she developed a pruritic skin rash all over her body. She endorsed having Trench fever, caused by Bartonella quintana or B. quintana, first plagued soldiers in the trenches in World contact with sick grandchildren who had similar symp- War I [1]. The human body louse acted as the vector toms that lasted for 2 weeks as well. She lives at home [2]. The disease is contracted through the feces of the with her husband, along with their goats and cats. She infected louse into broken skin surfaces [3]. Recent B. endorsed some mosquito bites lately but no other in- quintana outbreaks have been found amongst chronic sect or tick bites. She reported no recent travel. She is alcoholics as well as indigent and homeless populations generally very active and healthy. [4]. Trench Fever can present with mild influenza-like At the emergency department, vital signs were re- symptoms to a debilitating disease process: Bactere- markable for blood pressure of 99/65, heart rate of mia; endocarditis; or bacillary angiomatosis [1]. Defin- 133, respiratory rate of 26, and maximum body tem- itive diagnosis is by isolating the organism in blood or perature recorded in a 24-hour period of 102.5. Labs tissue culture. were practically normal. EKG showed sinus tachycar- Case Description dia with a heart rate of 120 and chest X-ray showed no acute process. She was given Tylenol 1 g, 2500 cc A 62-year-old woman with prior hypertension, hy- normal saline, and started on Levaquin and intrave- Citation: Gibson EJ, Pham TT, Goldson TM, Forjuoh SN (2020) Trench Fever in Texas. Clin Med Rev Case Rep 7:302. doi.org/10.23937/2378-3656/1410302 Accepted: March 28, 2020: Published: March 30, 2020 Copyright: © 2020 Gibson EJ, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Gibson et al. Clin Med Rev Case Rep 2020, 7:302 • Page 1 of 3 • DOI: 10.23937/2378-3656/1410302 ISSN: 2378-3656 nous Zosyn empirically for sepsis of unknown source. occult cancer. Peripheral blood smear was obtained On physical exam, she was alert and oriented as well that showed elevated absolute lymphocytes, throm- as appeared listless and plethoric in the face. Concen- bocytopenia, and red blood cells with Rouleaux for- tration and short-term memory decreased from base- mation that was thought to be possibly due to chron- line on exam according to husband. Pupils were equal ic lymphocytic leukemia but ultimately felt to be due and reactive to light, extra-ocular muscles were in- to reactive leukocytosis. Gastrointestinal consult was tact, no sinus tenderness was present, and both tym- also obtained due to her elevated liver function tests panic membranes were intact and unremarkable. Her and thrombocytopenia. Liver biopsy was obtained oropharynx did not show any erythema or exudates. that showed acute hepatitis suggestive of an infec- There was no cervical lymphadenopathy. She was tious process. Serology came up positive for IgG/IgM negative for neck stiffness, Kernig’s, and Brudzinski’s. Rocky Mountain spotted fever. She was started on She had tachycardia on exam, with no murmur, rub intravenous Doxycycline and subsequently switched or gallop. Her lungs were clear to auscultation bilat- to oral Doxycycline which she tolerated well for 24 erally with no wheezes, rales, or rhonchi. Her abdom- hours without fever. She was discharged to continue inal exam was unremarkable for any organomegaly or a further 3 days of oral Doxycycline to complete a to- masses palpated. Her skin exam was normal with no tal of 14 days therapy. apparent rash, lower extremity edema, or skin chang- Four days after discharge and after completing her es. Cranial nerves II-XII were grossly intact. antibiotic course, she was readmitted due to complaint She was admitted to the Family Medicine Hospital of fever. While in the emergency department, comput- service for fever of unknown origin with thrombocy- erized tomography of her abdomen/pelvis obtained topenia and elevated liver function tests. Given her showed evidence of recent liver biopsy but no evidence exposure to animals (on account of living on a farm of inflammation to suggest infection and no intra-ab- with goats and cats and working at a veterinary clin- dominal abscess. She was admitted with Vancomycin/ ic), the potential exposure to a wide variety of zoo- Zosyn. Review of infectious studies prior to recent dis- notic illnesses vs. mosquito-borne illness vs. viral syn- charge showed positive B. quintana as well as positive drome was considered. She was initially treated with CMV. Her antibiotic regimen was changed to Doxycy- broad spectrum antibiotics (Vancomycin/Zosyn). Her cline and Gentamicin due to the concern for Trench fe- fevers persisted and infectious disease was consult- ver. She continued to lose intravenous access and her ed. Initially, Q fever was entertained as the highest Gentamicin was discontinued in favor of Doxycycline as suspicion. A multitude of tests were subsequently monotherapy. Infectious disease was consulted again obtained with negative results for toxoplasma, Ehrli- regarding the positive serologies for B. quintana and chia, Histoplasmosis, brucella, coccioides, Q-Fever, CMV. They felt that her continued fevers were possibly arbovirus, malaria smear, typhus, cat scratch, barton- confounded by drug reaction to Cefuroxime that she ella, dengue, chikungunya, zika, west nile, hepatitis had been given prior to her last admission. They rec- panel, influenza pcr, stool pathogen panel, and HIV. ommended 4 weeks of continued Doxycycline as outpa- Hematology-oncology was consulted as there was tient and to follow up in the clinic. concern that her persistent fever might be due to an Figure 1: Temperature and white blood cell count during admission. Gibson et al. Clin Med Rev Case Rep 2020, 7:302 • Page 2 of 3 • DOI: 10.23937/2378-3656/1410302 ISSN: 2378-3656 Discussion Sources of Support It has been reported that B. quintana should be con- None. sidered a zoonotic infection [5]. In a study of 89 veter- inary personnel in Spain, two asymptomatic veterinary Author Contribution personnel were serologically positive to B. quintana All authors contributed equally to the conception, polymerase chain reaction without any history of lice, drafting, and final approval of the manuscript. considered the primary human vector [6]. The positive cut-off was 1:64 [6], the same cut-off we used as a posi- References tive serology marker in our patient. Classic trench fever 1. Anstead GM (2016) The centenary of the discovery of include quintan fever of 5-day intervals with asymptom- trench fever, an emerging infectious disease of World War 1. Lancet Infect Dis 16: e164-e172. atic periods, debilitating typhoidal illness, maculopapu- lar rash, conjunctivitis, severe headache, myalgias, and 2. Mosepele M, Mazo D, Cohn J (2012) Bartonella Infection in Immunocompromised Hosts: Immunology of Vascular splenomegaly [6]. This patient had waxing and waning Infection and Vasoproliferation. Clin Dev Immunol 2012: temperatures while hospitalized (Figure 1), myalgias, a 612809. subtle rash, but no splenomegaly. Usually, the incuba- 3. Biswas S, Rolain JM (2010) Bartonella Infection: treatment tion period for Trench fever after the primary infection and drug resistance. Future Microbiol 5: 1719-1731. is 15-25 days and the first fever episode can last 2-4 4.