Advanced Molecular and Microscopic Diagnostics Suggest Congenital Borrelia transmission: A Case Report

Lyme disease is by far the most common arthropod-borne disease in the Northern Hemi-sphere. It is caused by certain Borrelia species that are primarily transmitted to hosts by Ixodid ticks; however, transplacental transmission of the spirochete in both animals and humans has been reported. Here we report the detection of intact spirochetes in an ar-chived placental tissue sample that is immunoreactive to Borrelia antibodies. Cultivation of viable spirochetes from a vaginal swab of the mother and from the urine of the child, who showed no signs of a tick bite, suggests vector-free transmission of Borrelia from mother to child. By amplifying several genomic loci from the DNA of cultured and non-cultured Borrelia from blood and body fluid samples of the mother and the child, the Bor-relia in both were identified as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, a strain specific to North America.