An important review of neurological manifestations of Bartonella infection was published recently in the Journal of Neuroparasitology. In a recent commentary on the One Health Initiative website, lead author and Galaxy cofounder, Dr. Ed Breischwerdt noted that:
The primary motivations for this review were to emphasize the expanding number of arthropod vectors, wild and domestic animal reservoirs and growing number of named Bartonella species that have induced documented human infections in recent years. In addition, this review will hopefully help physicians, public health officials and veterinarians to stop equating infection with a Bartonella species to historical Cat Scratch Disease, but to start considering the possibility that a much more complex environmental and medical scenario might be contributing to diverse neurological disease presentations in neurobartonellosis patients throughout the world.
Bartonella infection (aka Cat Scratch Disease) is linked to a broad spectrum of neurological symptoms in the medical case series literature, including motor impairment, vision problems, loss of feeling in hands and feet, neurocognitive and mood disorders. Time for clinical researchers to investigate these links in large samples of patients!
The review article is available for free download at Ashdin Publishing: http://www.ashdin.com/journals/jnp/235640.pdf