Finding evidence of Lyme disease in the San Francisco Bay Area didn\u2019t surprise a team of researchers, although it may be news to many doctors in the region. But identifying another tick-borne pathogen that causes relapsing fever was unexpected and may deserve a closer look.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s conflict about whether the pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi<\/i> (the bacterial agent of Lyme disease) even exists in these spots,\u201d said Nathan Nieto<\/strong>, assistant professor of microbiology at Northern Arizona University. As a result, he said, the disease\u2014usually accompanied by fever, rash and fatigue\u2014often doesn\u2019t make the list when doctors are trying to make a diagnosis.<\/p>\n Lyme, after all, is named after a town in Connecticut and public awareness associates it with ticks in the northeastern United States, even though the disease has also gained a foothold in the upper Midwest.<\/p>\n Still, Nieto said the research team, which included collaborators from California, is \u201csurprised at the traction\u201d the story is getting, considering that Lyme disease has been investigated there for 35 years. The real surprise, Nieto said, is that his lab also identified Borrelia miyamotoi<\/i>, only recently recognized as a fever-causing pathogen that affects people.<\/p>\n The findings appear online<\/a> in the March issue of Emerging Infectious Disease<\/i>. Nieto sees the attention as just one more step in raising awareness about tick-borne pathogens.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we would like, for starters, is for clinicians to understand that Lyme disease is in the West,\u201d Nieto said. \u201cBut they also need to know that B. miyamotoi<\/i> exists there.\u201d<\/p>\n